Public Health Agency issuing commemorative coins celebrating themselves

This year, the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) would like to recognize all employees for their commitments towards pandemic relief efforts and award them with a special COVID-19 theme designed coin in a velvet presentation box.

The selected supplier is required to produce and deliver 5,000 coins in 5,000 velvet boxes.

According to exclusive documents obtained by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, the feds tossed out millions in personal protective equipment in the months leading up to the declaration of a global coronavirus pandemic after PHAC failed to properly rotate the strategic stockpile.

“One of the core duties of government is emergency preparedness – and not only did the federal government fail to prepare, they wasted more than a million dollars of equipment in the process,” said Franco Terrazzano, the CTF’s Federal Director.

The disposal took place in September of 2019, during the closure of one of the Public Health Agency of Canada’s National Emergency Supply Stockpile warehouses located in Regina, SK.

An estimated two million N95 masks and other assorted personal protective equipment were sent to the local dump. The original cost to purchase the PPE was $1,194,474, according to the records.

PPE was then replaced at a much higher cost. Masks normally purchased for $0.44 each were going for $1.12 a piece due to pandemic demand.

A subsequent examination by Auditor General Karen Hogan found that “the NESS was not prepared to respond to a pandemic”:

We found that information needed to govern, oversee and manage the federal stockpile was missing, outdated or lacked clarity. This had a negative impact on the operation of the federal stockpile...

PHAC did not track information “needed to ensure that inventory in the stockpile was not obsolete,” like expiration dates.

As a result, the agency was not as prepared as it could have been to respond to provincial and territorial government needs.

Rebel News will keep checking the government contracts website for tenders for hero cookies and arm braces from injuries related to patting one's self on the back.