During the early days of COVID, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called on Canadian industry to retool for production of personal protective equipment (PPE) to meet the supply crisis..“We need a sustainable, stable supply of these products… and that means making them at home,” he said in an address to the nation..Dozens of distillers across Canada responded and switched from making spirits to producing hand sanitizer. This explains why some sanitizers smell like rum..According to the CBC, dozens of Canada’s distillers scrambled to produce tens of thousands of litres for free..“At the height of the shortage, about a dozen distilleries in B.C. alone were supplying hospitals, government offices and emergency workers all over the province,” the CBC reported..But as Canadian businesses were providing sanitizer to protect Canadians for free, the federal government was buying sanitizer from foreign companies. .True North Distillery, in Grand Forks, B.C. ran twenty-four hours a day for six months producing free hand sanitizer..“Weeks go by, months go by, and we start seeing loads of sanitizer coming into Vancouver harbour, and being distributed, and no contracts for B.C. companies. It was a little bit concerning, owner Scott Stewart told CBC..“We feel abandoned. We really do.”.More than $570 million worth of hand sanitizer was supplied to Canada from foreign sources, according to Statistics Canada data obtained by CBC..Of that amount, Canada paid directly for at least $375 million’s worth. BYD Canada Co., a China-based car maker with a few employees and offices in Canada, was paid $252 million for sanitizer manufactured in its re-tooled Chinese factories..Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC) defended the decision, saying that Canada was faced with an “intense level of global competition” for medical supplies and “moved to buy bulk one-time orders from international suppliers during the worldwide shortage.”.Canada then signed large scale sanitizer supply agreements with major Canadian companies: Fluid Energy Group in Calgary, Hawktree Solutions in Ottawa and Irving Oil in New Brunswick..Tyler Dyke, president of the Craft Distillers Guild of B.C., and CEO of Okanagan Spirits Craft Distillery said Canadian distillers are unhappy they have not been compensated for their effort to protect their fellow citizens, and then were shut out of federal pandemic supply contracts. .He said distillers could easily supply all of Canada’s hand sanitizer..“Companies wouldn’t do this to produce material without a contract, but we were in very different times and these people thought that they were going to do the right thing and help the country,” said BC MP Richard Cannings..The government offered no compensation, just a thank-you..“We are immensely proud of how Canadian industry has stepped up… keeping our supply chains running and helping each other in a time of need,” said spokesman for Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry Navdeep Bains said..Grafton is the Western Standards Ottawa Bureau Chief. He can be reached at kgrafton@westernstandardonline.com
During the early days of COVID, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called on Canadian industry to retool for production of personal protective equipment (PPE) to meet the supply crisis..“We need a sustainable, stable supply of these products… and that means making them at home,” he said in an address to the nation..Dozens of distillers across Canada responded and switched from making spirits to producing hand sanitizer. This explains why some sanitizers smell like rum..According to the CBC, dozens of Canada’s distillers scrambled to produce tens of thousands of litres for free..“At the height of the shortage, about a dozen distilleries in B.C. alone were supplying hospitals, government offices and emergency workers all over the province,” the CBC reported..But as Canadian businesses were providing sanitizer to protect Canadians for free, the federal government was buying sanitizer from foreign companies. .True North Distillery, in Grand Forks, B.C. ran twenty-four hours a day for six months producing free hand sanitizer..“Weeks go by, months go by, and we start seeing loads of sanitizer coming into Vancouver harbour, and being distributed, and no contracts for B.C. companies. It was a little bit concerning, owner Scott Stewart told CBC..“We feel abandoned. We really do.”.More than $570 million worth of hand sanitizer was supplied to Canada from foreign sources, according to Statistics Canada data obtained by CBC..Of that amount, Canada paid directly for at least $375 million’s worth. BYD Canada Co., a China-based car maker with a few employees and offices in Canada, was paid $252 million for sanitizer manufactured in its re-tooled Chinese factories..Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC) defended the decision, saying that Canada was faced with an “intense level of global competition” for medical supplies and “moved to buy bulk one-time orders from international suppliers during the worldwide shortage.”.Canada then signed large scale sanitizer supply agreements with major Canadian companies: Fluid Energy Group in Calgary, Hawktree Solutions in Ottawa and Irving Oil in New Brunswick..Tyler Dyke, president of the Craft Distillers Guild of B.C., and CEO of Okanagan Spirits Craft Distillery said Canadian distillers are unhappy they have not been compensated for their effort to protect their fellow citizens, and then were shut out of federal pandemic supply contracts. .He said distillers could easily supply all of Canada’s hand sanitizer..“Companies wouldn’t do this to produce material without a contract, but we were in very different times and these people thought that they were going to do the right thing and help the country,” said BC MP Richard Cannings..The government offered no compensation, just a thank-you..“We are immensely proud of how Canadian industry has stepped up… keeping our supply chains running and helping each other in a time of need,” said spokesman for Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry Navdeep Bains said..Grafton is the Western Standards Ottawa Bureau Chief. He can be reached at kgrafton@westernstandardonline.com
