Canadians paid Québec supplier ‘top dollar’ for COVID ventilators it later scrapped

The Canadian Press / Tijana Martin and The Canadian Press / Patrick Doyle

• By David Menzies

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Canadian taxpayers paid a premium on COVID ventilators from CAE Incorporated of Montréal, formerly Canadian Aviation Electronics (CAE). Almost all 8,200 units were "slated for sale as scrap metal."

Records show the medical supplier received $231,650,000 for ventilators at $28,250 per unit—the highest unit cost during the pandemic.

Then-Industry Minister Navdeep Bains signed the contract following a private conversation with the company’s CEO, reported Blacklock’s Reporter.

"When it comes to CAE, it’s a great Canadian success story," Bains testified at 2020 hearings of the Commons industry committee. "This is a company that is a world leader in flight simulations," he said.

The Québec-made ventilators were later scrapped for metal, Access To Information records show. 

Medical ventilators purchased from a Toronto-based company by the Trudeau Public Health Agency via a $169.5 million sole-source contract were later sold for scrap.

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"They have the history, the technical know-how, the understanding," Bains testified. 

However, CAE had never manufactured ventilators before the April 9 contract, only days before the minister’s testimony. The devices subsequently failed Department of Health safety tests.

It is not known if any of the devices were used in any medical setting. Documents show 8,180 CAE ventilators were warehoused as early as 2021 and "slated for sale as scrap metal." Records did not disclose what the Public Health Agency did with the remaining 20 devices.

Blacklock’s filed several Access To Information requests to calculate unit charges for goods like ventilators after cabinet refused disclosure by invoking commercial privacy claims.

Records show the Department of Health paid CAE a premium of 25% to 49% over what it paid other suppliers. The equivalent of $28,250 per CAE device exceeds Baylis Medical ($23,730), StarFish Medical ($22,600) and Thornhill Medical ($18,993). 

“Taxpayers have every right to question why this cost so much, especially if the government was spending more money purchasing these ventilators,” Franco Terrazzano, Federal Director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, told Rebel News.

Continued controversy follows the abrupt scrubbing of dozens of government web pages last month, detailing billions in payments to COVID contractors. The Department of Public Works provided no reason for deleting the pandemic accounts. 

Some 34 web pages had detailed line-by-line payments to mainly sole-sourced suppliers for goods from vinyl gloves to ventilators. Payments totaled $24,405,139,945. 

The Montreal firm received a cash advance to manufacture ventilators, but the terms were never disclosed. Other firms received cash advances upwards of $40 million. 

“We went from a letter of intent to a purchase order and now they will be delivering the ventilators in a matter of weeks,” Minister Bains said at the time. “This is promising news for us because we are in a position to help not only Canadians but possibly other jurisdictions and other countries as well.”

Former Liberal MP Frank Baylis is known for being the head of Baylis Medical Company, which received a $237 million contract for ventilators in 2020 and a $4 million COVID contract for maintenance of ventilators that went unused.https://t.co/y5r9XJPbKK

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“Does anyone in government have a good explanation for this huge bill?” Terrazzano said.

Liberal MP Emmanuella Lambropoulos defended the CAE contract, telling a hearing of the Commons ethics committee in 2020 that "It was important for the government to take the necessary precautions and steps to ensure Canadians would be safe for the long term and that we would be able to offer enough medical equipment.