A Quebec company was given a quarter-billion taxpayer dollars to build 10,000 ventilators at the height of the COVID-19 crisis – but they didn’t work, say internal emails obtained by Blacklock’s Reporter..Documents show the sole-sourced contract was given to CAE Inc, of Montreal, because of the “extreme urgency.”.“It was an emergency situation,” said Helene Gagnon, senior vice president of CAE, formerly Canadian Aviation Electronics..“Canada gave contracts to companies to develop and manufacture ventilators. Certification was to be done once units were ready to be certified.”.Last April 9 the company was handed $282,500,000 to make the 10,000 ventilators. The company at the time said its medical devices “will help save lives of Covid-19 patients.”.But the product they produced repeatedly failed federal tests and were considered defective, said staff emails from the Prime Minister’s Office..“Their vents are still severely defected,” Sabrina Kim, then-advisor to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, wrote September 10..The company had received an undisclosed amount of the federal cash before production and now wanted more, wrote Kim..“They have been asking the Department of Public Works to advance additional funds,” wrote Kim..“CAE has already asked the department to advance additional funds while they continue to work on improving their vents due to previous delays in receiving approval, which neither the (department) nor (Health Canada) is strongly committed to doing..“The Department of Industry believes we should continue to find ways to support the development. It is not an easy task that we have asked them to undertake and they have invested $40 million in this project to date.”.Records showed the CAE ventilators failed both an initial test and a second after they were rebuilt..“CAE’s first delivery proved deficient with a series of manufacturing and software issues,” wrote Kim.. Feds spent quarter-billion dollars on ventilators that didn’t work .“The problems were serious enough that (Health Canada) removed their interim authorization so that no further sales or deliveries could take place until the problems were resolved..“CAE subsequently resubmitted their ventilator to (Health Canada). CAE has been making calls to try and get (Health Canada) to speed up their review.”.Results of a second round of testing “continue to show significant shortcomings with patient safety implications that could require several weeks, if not months, to address the problems,” said the staff email..Vice President Gagnon Wednesday said CAE ventilators finally passed federal inspection by year’s end..“We are finalizing deliveries this week of 8,200,” said Gagnon, eleven months after the “extremely urgent” contract was awarded..The Prime Minister’s Office and Department of Public Works did not comment..“CAE designed its ventilator from scratch,” said Gagnon..“It is a testament to Canadian innovation. Remember that in March last year the world was looking for ventilators urgently.”.Dave Naylor is the News Editor of the Western Standard.dnaylor@westernstandardonline.com.Twitter.com/nobby7694
