Former Liberal MP was involved with Trudeau govt for $237 MILLION medical contract

The Former Liberal MP whose medical technology company was contracted by the Trudeau government to make ventilators at a premium cost for Canadians was in direct contact with federal agents, a PMO memo has found.

According to Blacklock's Reporter, the Baylis Medical Company, owned by former Quebec MP Frank Baylis, was in negotiations with the Trudeau Liberals over the course of three days in April of 2020.

This comes in direct contradiction to Baylis' own statements during a ethics committee testimony, in which he said that he had not been reached out to "or doing any kind of backroom, as it's been suggested, request to get [himself] a contract."

Baylis said that he had never been contacted by the Trudeau government or speak to anyone "to influence them"

An October 24, 2020 memo from from the Department of Indurstry's deputy minister Paul Halucha to the PMO, however, shows that Baylis Medical was in direct contact with the Liberals, with Baylis' partners even warning the government that a contract with a former Liberal MP would be controversial."

The price, $237 million, was negotiated on the same day that the contract was recommended for approval.

“The Department of Public Works initiated negotiations with the first three made in Canada ventilator projects including FTI,” said the memo. “Baylis Medical was involved in the contract negotiations.”

That $237 million figure was also heavily scrutinized, as it was later found that the Liberals overpaid by nearly $10,000 per ventilator.

In total, the Trudeau government spent as much as $100,000,000 more than needed, as prices for Baylis' unapproved ventilators tower those of approved competitor Medtronic, reports Journal de Quebec.

"The government needs to be on notice that the money they’re spending in a pandemic is an unprecedented amount of money," said NDP MP Charlie Angus in September. "The money has to go out the door fast, but it has to follow the rules so Canadians' interests are put first, and not just people who know people in the government, not just in the power of the lobbyists."

Angus continued: "Prior to the WE Scandal, Canadians had a real sense of trust, that we were in an unprecedented economic and medical crisis, the government is there to work for us, we put our confidence in them, and then we saw the WE Scandal... People said, wait a minute: A group that close to the Prime Minister’s Office was given that much money? How did that happen?"

"It raises questions about other contracts," Angus concluded.

Contracts given to Baylis' company also include $273,237 towards the medical contract itself, with an additional $422,946 "research contract" with the Department of Industry, totalling $696,183 in taxpayer dollars.