It has come to light that the Public Health Agency of Canada paid millions of dollars upfront for ventilators that were later auctioned off as scrap metal for as little as $6 apiece, says Blacklock's Reporter.The secret contract, disclosed through Access to Information, shows that StarFish Medical Co. of Toronto received $20 million in advance to deliver 700 ventilators, despite not being a licensed ventilator manufacturer at the time.The contract, signed in April 2020, stipulated that the payment was to cover design, development, testing, and manufacturing costs, with the condition that a minimum of 300 ventilators be delivered before Health Canada authorization. However, none of the ventilators were ever used, and they were ultimately sold as scrap metal in 2021.StarFish Medical was paid $15.8 million for the delivery of the ventilators, equivalent to $22,600 each. The company claimed that the contract was fulfilled, and they had no insight into the decisions made about the unused inventory. However, the fate of the ventilators raises questions about the government's handling of the pandemic response.The ventilators were warehoused and later auctioned off, with some still in their original factory wrapping and crates, sold for a mere $6. Luke Hallstead, a paramedic from Petawawa, Ontario, purchased 50 of the ventilators and described them as "brand new" with intact shipping labels and original factory plastic wrapping.The costly venture was defended by StarFish executive John Walmsley, who testified before the Commons industry committee in 2020 that the company had invested heavily in design engineers and custom machined parts to deliver a safe product quickly.
