Government Operations committee  Yes. We had the capacity to produce as much hand sanitizer as was required. We, too, went through the same situation. We had breweries in the Toronto and Peel regions giving us their mash, which we could process. Our production capacity was large. Even from a microdistillery, we

Government Operations committee  In the beginning, we did business with them. We hired staff. We had an industry. In the beginning, the whole team agreed to a pay cut. We even reduced the price of our spirits to help the community. Then we tried to provide hand sanitizer to our community. So when these people o

Government Operations committee  Yes.

Government Operations committee  No, not really. I think my colleague said it quite eloquently.

Government Operations committee  Yes. Very early on—

Government Operations committee  I did not.

Government Operations committee  No, I was not.

Government Operations committee  If you like, I'll go first. All costs in, we probably spent over a million dollars.

Government Operations committee  Yes. For retooling, we had to buy some capital equipment in order for us to produce. It was also the opportunity lost from the spirits business and then, of course, buying all the excess materials, bottling, finding suppliers and just basically to retool.

Government Operations committee  Absolutely. I have emails and texts that I'd be happy to share. I'm not saying that these people weren't legitimate, but obviously—

Government Operations committee  I will speak, and then I will yield the floor to my colleague. Yes, I have to say that we had some help. Health Canada looked at the composition and approved it very quickly. Then they looked at the label and made suggestions. What I really can't complain about is Health Canada

Government Operations committee  We started this in February 2020, and it was almost daily. We would get these calls from people, especially in March, when it was at its peak. Individuals would say, “I have a contact within procurement. They want 100,000 litres.” “They want 200,000 litres. I just sold 100,000 li

Government Operations committee  It was actually easy for us. If you're actually making alcohol, you're already making it 96% proof. The challenge was to find the proper recipe. A lot of distilleries would take 70% ethanol and put it in a bottle and add water. That just wasn't sufficient. We did some research an

Government Operations committee  The issue was that it was very uneven. Some distilleries actually followed the World Health Organization and used the proper materials within their products. They used what was considered food grade ethanol, but as it evolved, there were less than.... I don't want to say unsavour

Government Operations committee  I must admit it was a bit surprising. We did everything we could to convert our facilities. I may not be in the same position as my colleague, because we sold a lot of disinfectant. That said, I found it surprising that we didn't have access to the federal government. I was surp