Building domestic capacity: Standing Committee on Government Operations and Estimates—July 23, 2020
Document navigation for "Standing Committee on Government Operations and Estimates: July 23, 2020"
On this page
Key message
Our goal is to be over prepared and as such, we are ordering supplies in anticipation of future needs, while at the same time directly supporting Canadian industry to scale-up and re-tool to build domestic capacity.
Background
Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED) is leading the Plan to Mobilize Industry to fight COVID-19 that has a number of important components, such as:
- building the industrial capability needed to manufacture critical supplies at scale in Canada. This will be done either by re-tooling the manufacturing lines of existing Canadian businesses or rapidly scaling up the production of others that already produce these products
- refocusing Canada’s existing industrial and innovation programs, by adding to their mandate a requirement that they prioritize the fight against COVID-19. This includes:
- the Strategic Innovation Fund to deliver direct support to Canadian companies for large-scale projects
- National Research Council of Canada to expedite research and development with small and medium-sized enterprises
- innovation superclusters to tap into a national network of 1,800 members, and Innovative Solutions Canada to help companies commercialize products more quickly
In addition, Canada’s Plan to Mobilize Science to fight COVID-19 announced on March 23, 2020, includes significant investments in Canada’s world-class research community to develop vaccines and treatments for COVID-19 and to diagnose the disease. These investments in research, combined with investments in innovation and manufacturing capacity, will help stop the spread of COVID-19 and, ultimately, facilitate our return to work and economic recovery.
To date, Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC) has placed orders for millions of key items, such as masks, test kits, and ventilators, and we have established agreements with Canadian companies that are stepping up to support Canada’s efforts to combat COVID-19, including the following:
- 16 contracts were awarded to Canadian apparel manufacturers for over 21.5 million medical grade gowns; mostly level 1 and 2
- 19 contracts were awarded to Canadian manufacturers for 43,653,000 units of face shields
- a contract was awarded to Fluid Energy for 10 million litres of hand sanitizer and deliveries started in April
- a contract was awarded to Medicom to build domestic production capacity of surgical National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) N95 respirators and level 3 surgical masks
- agreements were entered in to with Thornhill Medical, CAE, Starfish, Ventilators for Canadians and Vexos to provide over 38,000 made-in-Canada ventilators
- a contract was awarded to Stryker for 82 units for the sterilization of N95 masks. Technology is already being used and deployed in small and large health centres who currently have Sterrad units, which were recently approved for the sanitization of N95 masks
- a contract was awarded to LuminUltra for the production and distribution of reagent to all provinces and territories. The contract will allow that every week, 1,042 extractions kits will be distributed (represents 500,000 extractions per week)
- a contract was awarded to Spartan Bioscience for the delivery of 700 testing platforms and 1,920,000 test kits. On May 3rd, concerns regarding the efficacy of the proprietary swab for Spartan’s COVID-19 testing product was reported. Consequently, Spartan has voluntarily recalled its COVID-19 product to perform additional clinical studies
- a contract was awarded to General Motors (GM) of Canada for the production of 10,000,000 face masks. The contract is for a period of 12 months, and on July 10 GM announced that it had produced its 1 millionth mask
- a contract was awarded to GL Chemtec for the production and delivery of 10 tonnes of guanidine thiocyanate. This ingredient is required to produce reagent to undertake lab-based molecular tests
- a contract was awarded to Plastiques Moore for the provision of plastic components to be used in laboratories during the COVID-19 testing process
- a contract was awarded to Precision ADM for the provision of 3D printed swabs. The contract is for a period of 1-year with 2 option-year period. Quantity is 120,000 swabs per week for a total of 6,240,000 swabs
The government is continuing to explore opportunities to mobilize Canadian industry. For example:
- negotiations are currently underway with international manufacturers of N95 respirators and testing kits regarding the possibility of implementing domestic capacity
- 2 request for proposals were published on Buy and Sell for vaccination supplies such as alcohol swabs, gauze, bandages, and sharp object containers. Preference will be given to Canadian manufactures