The Department of Health scrapped more than half of the COVID-19 ventilators it bought under $1.1 billion in sole-sourced contracts, Access To Information records show. Blacklock's Reporter says then-minister Jean-Yves Duclos approved selling brand new machines as scrap metal in 2022, a decision never disclosed to Parliament.“The National Emergency Strategic Stockpile currently holds twice as many ventilators than required,” said a memo to the minister. Duclos’ signature was required “for a sale of valuable surplus assets at less than market value,” it noted, adding there could be “legal implications” from the move..Of the 27,687 ventilators purchased, 14,187 were declared surplus. The loss per unit was never detailed. The devices were sold by weight at a fraction of the taxpayer cost. One Public Health Agency manager wrote that GC Surplus paid 8¢ per kilogram and offered free pick-up. Some units were still in their original packaging.Blacklock’s has documented cases where new ventilators that cost $22,000 were auctioned for as little as $6. Managers complained the stockpiles were taking up valuable space in warehouses in Ottawa and Toronto, with recycling expected to free up more than 62,000 square feet..The Public Health Agency said the devices could not be donated, and admitted “lessons learned” in a 2021 memo that surplus biomedical equipment cannot be easily given to other countries.Despite the $1.1 billion contracts and the massive waste, no parliamentary committee has examined the ventilator scandal. In 2021, the Commons ethics committee rejected a Conservative proposal to investigate pandemic spending and potential conflicts of interest.Liberal MP Greg Fergus dismissed the idea, saying, “It would just be stirring the pot.”
