Unaddressed federal stockpile issues was brought to the agency’s attention by 2010, at least
Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) – the federal agency responsible for public health, emergency preparedness and response, and infectious and chronic disease control and prevention – was not prepared to meet the equipment demand caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
This was the finding of Canada’s auditor general Karen Hogan.
Hogan noted that PHAC did not address long-standing issues in how personal protective equipment (PPE) and medical devices were managed in the National Emergency Strategic Stockpile, which were reported at least by 2010.
“As a result of long-standing unaddressed problems with the systems and practices in place to manage the National Emergency Strategic Stockpile, the Public Health Agency of Canada was not as prepared as it could have been to respond to the surge in provincial and territorial needs for PPE and medical devices brought on by the COVID‑19 pandemic,” Hogan said in the report.
“In our view, this calls into question the effectiveness of the agency’s governance and oversight of the federal stockpile before the World Health Organization declared COVID‑19 to be a pandemic in March 2020. As a result, the Public Health Agency of Canada was not as prepared as it could have been to help meet provincial and territorial needs.”
Hogan noted that emergencies such as the COVID‑19 pandemic can occur at any time with little warning, and such events may require timely access to essential provisions in the federal stockpile, such as an inventory of PPE and medical devices.
In fact, even before COVID-19, it was well known that a pandemic was possible, according to Bill Fender, senior vice president for commercial property portfolios at First Onsite Property Restoration, adding that “It’s almost a once-in-a-century thing”.
Canada can benefit from having a permanent domestic personal protective equipment (PPE) manufacturing base, according to another expert.
Ontario earlier announced it is investing more than $5 million to train and mentor up to 150 health sciences professionals on how to secure investments for their innovative medical solutions and bring them to market.
Stepping up
Meanwhile, Hogan noted that PHAC, Health Canada and Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC) cooperated to meet the needs of provincial and territorial governments for PPE and medical devices during the pandemic.
Health Canada modified its processing of equipment supplier licence applications to help keep up with the rapidly increasing demand for licences, and the PHAC adjusted its quality assurance process to address the large volume of equipment needing to be assessed.
Also, PSPC modified its procurement activities to quickly buy the required equipment on behalf of the PHAC to respond to the pandemic. “The department accepted some risks in order to procure large quantities of equipment in a market where the supply could not always meet demand. Otherwise, fewer pieces of equipment would have been available to provinces and territories,” according to the report.
