How will Canada benefit from a permanent domestic PPE manufacturing base?

The COVID-19 pandemic led to a surge in the demand for personal protective equipment (PPE) in Canada and other parts of the world.

And Canada relied heavily on imports to provide the necessary equipment locally amid the crisis, said to Rob Balazs, president and CEO of Breathe Medical Manufacturing.

“Canada was not a manufacturer of medical-grade masks,” Balazs told iNFOnews.ca.

“A lot of it was coming from sources offshore, Asia predominantly. The pandemic revealed a huge gap in the marketplace and we were, quite frankly, caught with our pants down. We didn’t have the product we needed for our front line workers so our Prime Minister put out the plea and encouraged people to step up to the plate and see what we can do to take care of Canadians and we’ve done that.”

Issues

Currently, Health Canada is also allowing certain medical devices that may not fully meet Canadian regulatory requirements but are manufactured to comparable standards to be imported and sold. This is being done through an exceptional import and sale interim order.

However, a lot of the products that came were not top-notch, Balazs said.

“The issues were, like, fit and function, where they had a lot of issues with ear loops missing, nose wires not in place, just a lot of physical issues. Then, when you go through the tests for the bacteria, particle filtrations, all the different standards where they didn’t hit the threshold. So, a lot of products failed.”

Recently, five Canadians were charged in the United States with conspiracy to commit wire fraud in a scheme to fraudulently acquire PPE.

Manufacturing locally

This has to change, and manufacturing PPE in Canada is the answer, said Balazs.

“Is it sustainable to manufacture in Canada? One hundred per cent it is. Is it going to cost a little bit more? Possibly. But why not spend that money at home where it goes right back into the economy?

The federal government needs to think about this long-term, said Balazs.

“When you spend that money offshore, you have not invested a penny back into your country. But when you spend it at home, look at how many jobs are created. Look at how many tax dollars are generated back into the economy. You’ve got to do the math on that. So, is it actually costing us more? No, not really. It isn’t.”

“If you look at what portion of the federal budget is made up of health spending, it’s a large amount. I’m saying, let's use that asset portion to make sure we spend it at home where we need to take care of manufacturing and we need to make sure that money goes back into tax dollars.”

Two-thirds (66.1 per cent) of businesses in Canada said they needed or anticipate to need personal protective equipment (PPE) to operate in accordance with COVID-19 public health guidelines, according to a report from Statistics Canada (StatCan).