OTTAWA—As the Canadian government defends its pandemic supply chains from fierce global competition, the federal procurement minister says the COVID-19 crisis shows Canada needs to make its own medical gear for future emergencies.

Anita Anand, the rookie Liberal MP from Oakville who is leading the government’s scramble to stock up on much-needed medical equipment, said Thursday that supplies Canada is purchasing abroad are under threat from competitive bidders every step of the way — from the factory where they’re made to the airport tarmac from which they’re shipped.

In an interview with the Star, Anand said this “fragile” situation means the country must ramp up its capacity for made-in-Canada supplies to fight COVID-19 and get ready for future disease outbreaks.

“We need to continue the effort to retool and buildup Canadian business,” Anand said, pointing to contracts Ottawa has signed with companies across the country to buy huge amounts of rapid testing kits, surgical masks, portable ventilators and other medical supplies.

“These are all goods that we need now, but that we will have on hand in future situations,” she said. “Retooling domestic industry, in my view, is the key in allowing us to be well-prepared for future pandemics.”

But while the government rallies Canadian companies to produce pandemic supplies, Anand said her department is also working around the clock to buy equipment on the “hypercompetitive” international market. With supplies “largely coming” from China, Anand said Canada has hired Bolloré Logistics and Deloitte to work with diplomatic staff to make sure the equipment Canada orders actually makes it here.

Anand said countries around the world are scrambling to buy the same supplies as the federal government. This means there is a risk higher bidders will snatch the goods that Canada has already procured before they are shipped to hospitals in this country, Anand said, declining to cite specific examples of that happening.

“What I mean by a fragile supply chain is that there is competition for the goods that we have already procured and we need to be vigilant about watching those goods from start to finish,” Anand said.

Canada is also pushing to maintain new sources of the supplies it needs, Anand said, pointing to how the government successfully acquired 500,000 N95 respirators from U.S.-based 3M last week. That shipment was imperilled after U.S. President Donald Trump ordered American companies to withhold personal protective equipment from foreign buyers, but 3M struck a deal with the White House to continue shipping its respirators to Canada and Latin America.

Anand said Canada has already received almost 2 million N95 respirators for front-line health workers, along with 17.5 million surgical masks and 14 million pairs of medical gloves. The federal government has ordered hundreds of millions more of this protective equipment, she said. It is also ordering up to 30,000 ventilators — Canada’s estimated supply before the pandemic was about 5,000, according to the deputy chief health officer — from Canadian companies manufacturing them over the coming months.

Dr. Robin Cox, a professor at Royal Roads University and director of the school’s Resilience by Design Research Innovation Lab, said COVID-19 pandemic exposes the risk of relying on global supply chains for emergency supplies.

“We’re seeing that in the scramble to get companies to retool. Whether it’s pharmaceuticals, (protective equipment), food, many other things — we have become a nation that is heavily reliant on global systems,” Cox said.

“Preparing for future pandemics requires a real shift in mindset and in these interconnecting systems… You need to be able to create these things, and in global crises, you need to have some capacity to create those domestically.”

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

Anand said it will make sense “to have arrangements in place” with domestic companies to produce supplies. But the focus now is on quickly diversifying how Canada gets them for the current crisis. That includes ramping up domestic production and finding new suppliers in other countries, Anand said.

“You’re not going to see this supply chain issue being static. It is in a state of flux and my goal is to have complementary supply chains operating simultaneously where we do not run into a situation where we are short on personal protective equipment,” she said.

Read more about: