Information & Ethics committee  I can answer that. The reality is that Rick Jamieson and FTI had approached us to help support the ventilator program, and FTI was the one negotiating with the federal government. They were taking that on, and then we were a subcontractor to FTI. In that relationship, my responsibility was to ask what it was going to take to get the ventilators going—when manufacturing was going to start, when we had to hire people—and put all the calculations, put all the planning together to make them.

Information & Ethics committee  There are two other buckets related to the cost. I'd like to explain, if I may, because I know this is one question that has come up often. The second one was that we had to establish a completely new manufacturing facility dedicated specifically for ventilator production. We had to hire 250 people and get special tooling, equipment components, and we also had to secure a global supply chain.

Information & Ethics committee  Thank you. I'd be happy to explain exactly how we approach this. Our device is a replica of the Medtronic PB560 ventilator. The way we approached it is that we priced our ventilator the same as the Medtronic PB560, which was $10,000 U.S. at the time. That's what we started with.

Information & Ethics committee  Good afternoon. Thank you for inviting me to speak today. My name is Neil Godara and I'm the vice-president and general manager of Baylis Medical's design and manufacturing services division. In that division, I'm responsible for the design, development and manufacturing of complex medical devices typically used in the treatment of spinal pathologies.