(Ottawa) As the COVID-19 pandemic wreaked havoc last year, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made an urgent appeal to Canadian companies to engage in local production of personal protective equipment. Many companies have responded to this call to mobilize.
The goal was to ensure that Canada would never again be dependent on other countries, especially China, for the manufacture of such essential equipment in times of health crisis.
PHOTO JOËL-DENIS BELLAVANCE, THE PRESS
A box of masks distributed to parliamentarians in Ottawa
However, the House of Commons has distributed to members of Parliament, their assistants and employees of Parliament Hill for a few weeks masks that are made … in China. To the chagrin of the leaders of Canadian companies who have invested millions of dollars to ensure local production of this precious equipment.
“It is an affront to our country”, launches Press Barry Hunt, President of Prescient in Cambridge, Ont. “I am completely speechless. ”
His company has invested more than $ 2 million to embark on the production of protective masks that are innovative and environmentally friendly, the NanoMask, which conforms perfectly to the shape of the face and makes breathing easier.
Canadian companies sidelined
Mr. Hunt, who is also president of the Canadian Association of PPE Manufacturers (CAPPEM), which brings together some twenty companies wishing to create a new industrial cluster, is all the more furious that the companies which have answered the call at the foot of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau are now completely excluded from government contracts for the next few years.
The reason ? The Department of Supply and Utilities has entered into lucrative long-term contracts with two multinationals to manufacture this equipment.
A five-year supply contract totaling $ 250 million has been awarded to the American multinational 3M for N95 respiratory protection masks.
Another 10-year, $ 400 million contract has been awarded to Groupe Medicom, an international medical equipment supplier based in Montreal, for N95 masks and level 3 buckle surgical masks .
In addition, these two multinationals also obtained a financial boost from the Trudeau government for the expansion or modernization of their facilities. 3M received $ 47 million from Ottawa to upgrade a plant in Brockville. Medicom Group for its part obtained a subsidy of $ 29 million.
“Without a contract and without government assistance”
But not only are the companies that are part of CAPPEM deprived of federal government contracts, but they have not obtained any financial assistance from Ottawa to lay the foundations for local production.
“The contracts awarded to these two multinationals are long-term. We have to settle for crumbs. Without a contract and without government assistance, we are doomed to go out of business, ”Mr. Hunt said in an interview with Press while in Ottawa last week.
“We have a new personal protective equipment manufacturing industry taking shape in this country, but you can’t get a government contract, loan or grant. Why is the government only giving financial aid, taxpayer money, to multinationals like 3M and Medicom? Asks Mr. Hunt.
Our products are innovative, reusable and therefore more respectful of the environment. Our products are the most advanced in the world. The federal government behaves as if they do not exist. Worse yet, they fund our competitors with taxpayer dollars.
Barry Hunt, President of the Canadian Association of PPE Manufacturers
According to Mr. Hunt, CAPPEM could become the prime contractor in the management of the strategic national reserve, which is used to maintain stocks of personal protective equipment and medical instruments to supply the provinces in case of emergency. This reserve was mismanaged by Ottawa, so the federal government and provinces were caught off guard when the COVID-19 pandemic hit because stocks ran out. “We would be able to manage that reserve in a way that we can maintain inventory,” says Hunt.
“It is beyond comprehension”
MP Pierre Paul-Hus, who is the Conservative Party’s procurement critic, is also fuming when he sees the boxes of Chinese-made masks that are prominently displayed in the buildings on Parliament Hill.
“There are Canadian companies that have made major investments to be able to manufacture quality masks that meet the highest standards. But for the House of Commons and the federal government to buy masks that are made in China and allegedly approved by the FDA is beyond belief. It is also worrying for the health and protection of Members of Parliament and staff on Parliament Hill. They wear a mask whose quality we do not know, ”said Paul-Hus.
According to him, this situation is inexcusable and unacceptable.
At the start of the pandemic, it is understandable that there was an urgent need to obtain masks. We had no strategic reserve. But after nearly two years of the pandemic, and after Canadian companies have invested heavily to produce masks here, it is completely incomprehensible that the Canadian government continues to provide us with products made in China.
MP Pierre Paul-Hus, Conservative spokesperson for procurement
At the office of the Speaker of the House of Commons, we confirm that a call for tenders has been launched for various products in order to protect elected officials and employees on the Hill. But these products were not required to be made in Canada in the call for tenders.
“The House of Commons Administration issued a call for tenders to find companies that could supply the items required for COVID-19 (i.e. hand sanitizer, non-medical masks and disinfectant wipes). The requirement that these items had to be made in Canada was not a criterion, ”said Heather Bradley, director of communications for the office of the presidency, in an email to Press.