Question Period Note: Procurement of N95 masks

Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC), on behalf of the Government of Canada, has awarded contracts with Medicom and 3M for the production of N95 masks.

• The health and safety of Canadians is our number one priority. We have established a domestic source of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) with Canadian manufacturing firms Medicom and 3M Canada
  • PSPC has procured more than 307 million masks on behalf of the Government of Canada of which more than 186 million were sourced from domestic suppliers
  • Prior to establishing domestic capacity, Canada purchased 13 million N95 masks from Canadian 3M distributer Acklands Grainger that were sourced from the United States. So far, Canada has received 7,481,496 masks from Acklands Grainger
  • 3M’s domestic manufacturing plant in Brockville, Ontario has been up and running since April 1, 2021. To date, this facility has delivered 4,385,929 N95 masks
  • The federal government amended the 3M contract in March 2021 to purchase an additional 5 million units, on top of the 25 million units already purchased for Year 1. These additional units will be delivered between April to June 2021 from the Brockville plant
  • In total, 3M will have delivered 30 million N95 masks by the end of Year 1 of the 3M domestic contract
  • Medicom has now started production of N95 masks in Canada, and the Government of Canada has received 15.24 million masks from this domestic production, with an additional 1,600,000 anticipated by the end of May 2021

If pressed on fit testing (3M Canada):

• Each size of respirator model must undergo a fit test
• 3M Canada is providing product samples directly to the provinces and territories in order for them to conduct fit testing
• Distribution of model type will be dictated by the results of this end user face fit testing

If pressed on fit testing (Medicom):

• Medicom has conducted fit testing on a similar European model of N95 respirator to the model produced in Canada and Health Canada has accepted this testing as equivalent
• Medicom will implement support and training to end users for as long as needed to them to help them understand and adopt Medicom respirator models

If pressed on litigation with different companies:

• I am not able to comment on the matter as it is before the courts

PSPC has procured 307,707,540 N95 masks on behalf of the Government of Canada. Of this total quantity, 281,635,540 were procured for the Public Health Agency of Canada, 6,072,000 were procured for other federal government departments, and 20,000,000 were procured for the Essential Services Reserve. To date, we have received 118,559,016 masks.

PSPC awarded a 10-year contract to Medicom for domestic production and distribution of surgical masks and N95 masks for PHAC. Production ramp up for N95 masks began in August 2020. In addition to the 8,214,500 masks received to date, the Government of Canada anticipates receiving, on average approximately 3 million masks per month for the next year.

In November 2020, PSPC entered into a contract directly with 3M Canada to purchase domestically-produced N95 masks. Under the contract, 3M will provide 30 million N95 masks in year 1, with 25 million annually over contract years 2 to 5 (April 2021 to March 2026). Starting April 1, 2021, the Government of Canada will receive approximately 3 million masks per month for the next year.

3M confirmed that the Brockville plant is fully operational as of April 1, 2021.

None