Air cargo flights of Chinese medical supplies cost taxpayers $120 million in the first 90 days of the pandemic, say Access To Information records. Federal agencies said they had no choice but to charter planes after failing to maintain a national stockpile of masks, gloves and medical gowns..The Department of Public Works in a June 10, 2020 staff memo detailed millions spent on cargo fees to fly emergency shipments of goods from suppliers in China. Contracts included $15 million each to Air Canada, WestJet, First Air and PAL Aerospace and $60 million to CargoJet of Hamilton, Ont..Political aides at the time complained of costly air cargo fees. “The cost of flying one cargo plane from China to Canada is between $600,000 and $800,000,” said an April 1, 2020 staff email in the Prime Minister’s Office..Bolloré Logistics was paid $30 million to arrange China deliveries and warehousing. Deloitte Inc. was paid $9.6 million to manage shipments of COVID supplies..The Department of Public Works in April 15, 2020 testimony at the House of Commons government operations committee said it rushed to fill orders. “We’ve made some adjustments on the fly,” testified Bill Matthews, then-deputy minister..“We’re in a world where the volume is just so far above what we’re used to and we’re dealing with companies we’ve never had to deal with before,” said Deputy Matthews. “There is an ongoing active test on every piece that comes in. We check for quality.”.The Public Health Agency of Canada has acknowledged mismanaging a national stockpile of emergency pandemic supplies. The Agency to date has not explained why it was caught short at the outbreak of COVID, despite repeated warnings to keep a minimum six months’ supply of masks, gowns and other goods..“In many ways the emergency stockpile system is an insurance policy,” Agency auditors wrote in a 2011 report Evaluation Of The National Emergency Stockpile System. “No one ever wants to draw from that insurance policy because that would mean an undesirable event has happened and many people are affected. “.“However these types of events will continue to happen and Canada has to be prepared,” wrote auditors. “There is a need for a stockpile of public health supplies managed by the federal government.”.“It is necessary to update the stockpile,” said Evaluation. The report was prompted by the 2009 H1N1 pandemic that killed 428 Canadians and hospitalized 8,678 others..The Agency in a separate 2006 plan said future pandemics were “inevitable” and that it must prepare. “The next pandemic will first emerge outside of Canada,” said the Canadian Pandemic Influenza Plan For The Health Sector. “The novel virus will be transmitted efficiently from person to person resulting in large numbers of people being infected.”
