The Trudeau Liberal government spent $169.5 million on a sole-sourced contract for emergency ventilators during the COVID-19 pandemic, which are now being sold off as cheap scrap parts. Ventilator parts were sold for as little as $6 a carton out of a Concord, ON by GC Surplus — a government-owned agency formerly known as War Assets Corporation. The Department of Public Works division sells used government-issue goods from autos to filing cabinets, according to Blacklock’s Reporter.The 'Canadian Emergency Ventilators' were listed for auction as “scrap metal.” Luke Halstead, a paramedic from Petawawa, ON, bought 50 of the disassembled units at a bargain of $6 a piece. They were still in their original factory wrapping. “I bought 50. About half of them were in their original shipping crates with the Canadian Emergency Ventilators stencil on the box. They were brand new. They even had the original factory plastic wrapping. All the shipping labels were intact,” said Halstead. The Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) contracted the 'Canadian Emergency Ventilators' from a Toronto-based company called StarFish Medical. The Department of Public Works would not say how much it paid for the devices, though the House of Commons Ethics Committee in 2020 was told the $169.5 million contract was payment for 7,500 devices, the equivalent of $22,600 apiece.The Department of Health did not explain why unused ventilators were sold as scrap. Regulators had licensed the devices for hospital use.Halstead said he spotted the ventilators at a 2023 online auction at GC Surplus, the public works department’s sales division. “The bidding started at $5. This is not unusual for scrap metal or wooden pallets,” said Halstead, who was told by warehouse workers they "continued to receive these ventilators well into 2022."“I bought so many I had to make multiple trips to the sales warehouse with a livestock trailer. They are still sitting in my driveway."“The warehouse workers told me they were originally shipped as parts and that the Public Health Agency was supposed to assemble the units.”“It was obvious the crates had never been opened. These parts were heavy grade sheet metal still in the factory plastic wrap. They still had the original shipping labels.”Cabinet from the outbreak of the pandemic awarded more than $720 million in sole-sourced contracts for ventilators. The majority were warehoused. “I do have the Canadian taxpayers’ interests at heart when I am doing my job,” then-Public Works Minister Anita Anand said in 2021 testimony at the Commons Government Operations Committee.“At the beginning of the pandemic it wasn’t clear how many ventilators would be necessary to prepare for any eventuality,” testified Anand. Of 40,547 ventilators ordered from various manufacturers a total 27,025 were delivered. Most were warehoused. A total 839 surplus machines were donated to hospitals in India, Pakistan, Nepal and Ukraine, according to a March 25 Inquiry Of Ministry tabled in the Commons.In 2020, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had initially praised the manufacturer as a Canadian success story.“Canadian companies are answering the call,” Trudeau said, at the time.“This is exactly the kind of innovative and collaborative thinking we need.”
