The Royal Canadian Mounted Police is urgently looking for 150,000 cloth face masks, 60 days after the worldwide pandemic was officially declared by the World Health Organization.  

The Request for Procurement (RFP) was added to Public Works and Government Service’s Canada’s BuyAndSell.gc.ca contracts and tenders website on May 14, 2020, and will close May 28.  

“The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) has an urgent requirement for Cloth Facial Masks. The Cloth Facial Masks must be made in accordance with the RCMP specification... patterns (to be provided upon request) and viewing sample (not available during the solicitation period). Government Available Material (GAM) for the shell and lining material must be purchased from the RCMP.”  

The contract has an option to be expanded to 400,000 masks over the next 36 months.  

A pronouncement of a global coronavirus pandemic was made by the World Health Organization over two months ago, on March 11, 2020.  

The RCMP mask order comes on the heels of rushed April 27 contract for 120,000 cloth masks for Canada’s military. That RFP will close May 21 for an anticipated delivery date of June 30, 2020.

The Canadian Forces were deployed to Quebec seniors homes to assist with coronavirus relief in late April.  

Police, CAF, and frontline healthcare workers have been struggling with medical protective equipment shortages after Trudeau gifted Canada’s strategic stockpile of pandemic supplies to China on February 4. Canada identified its first case of the Chinese virus on January 25.   

According to an earlier article in Blacklock’s, the last-minute procurement of medical PPE to offset Trudeau’s bungling has been expensive:  

“Federal failure to stock up on vital medical supplies has cost taxpayers some half-billion dollars, according to figures submitted to the Commons government operations committee. The Department of Public Works said it’s now forced to pay a 380 percent pandemic price mark-up for masks needed by doctors, nurses, and paramedics.”