The federal government anticipates spending roughly $7 million this fiscal year for the upkeep of four barely used portable hospitals. These custom-made facilities, intended to aid overwhelmed hospitals during the COVID-19 pandemic, cost taxpayers over $200 million to acquire.

Access to Information documents show that the costly, complex Mobile Health Units (MHUs) are proving difficult and slow to dismantle.

Ottawa has been trying to sell or donate them since last year, with GCSurplus planning to empty warehouses of these assets by September 2025, according to the same documents.

In 2020, Ottawa ordered two pandemic hospital units, with Ontario requesting two more in 2021. The latter two units, sent to Sunnybrook and Hamilton Health Sciences during the second wave, were not used for critical overflow, according to a 2021 media report.

Each pandemic hospital unit needs 588 tractor-trailers of space and constant electricity for medicine refrigeration. Full deployment takes about seven weeks, and relocation requires 75 transport trucks per unit.

They now reside in storage, costing the federal government millions annually for upkeep, including an estimated $8.4 million over the next 12 to 18 months. 

"Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC) is actively pursuing multiple divestment avenues for Mobile Health Unit assets," department spokesperson Nicole Allen told the Epoch Times. "This includes transferring the assets to other federal government departments, selling assets, and donating assets to eligible organizations and other levels of government within Canada."

Other provinces rejected the MHUs outright, citing insufficient healthcare staff, as did other departments.

In October 2022, the Department of Finance directed PSPC to divest the pandemic hospital assets. A plan for their disposal was approved by the Deputy Minister of the Emergency Management Committee on December 18, 2023, the same committee that initially supported their rapid acquisition in 2020.

Approval to dispose of the pandemic hospital units was slow for PSPC, partly because potential recipients already possessed smaller versions.

A February 2024 memo from then-minister Jean-Yves Duclos deemed the "pandemic hospitals" surplus, permitting GCSurplus to sell, dismantle, or donate them below market value, a move that concerned a procurement manager due to the lack of a divestment plan or surplus declaration.

They were deemed unsuitable for international and domestic deployment due to size, deployment complexity, equipment configuration, and high maintenance costs, says a government memo.

In spring 2020, Ottawa awarded contracts to Weatherhaven and SNC-Lavalin/PAE through a "limited tendering process," having already built MHUs for National Defence. 

One unit's oxygen system was later used at Stanton Territorial Hospital and another NWT hospital in 2022. Surplus federal supplies were donated to schools, and some medical equipment went to the National Emergency Strategic Stockpile.

As of January 3, 2024, Weatherhaven and SNC-Lavalin-PAE received $124.9 million and $82.1 million for these units, respectively.