Trudeau government awards Quebec company with no Canadian factories 10-year $133 MILLION PPE deal

The ten-year contract was given to AMD Medicom Inc. and now some MPs are requesting to view the contract's terms.

On March 20, the cabinet signed the agreement with AMD Medicom. Initially, Medicom was awarded a $19,922,868 contract in order to ship masks from factories it has in Augusta, Georgia along with France, China and Taiwan.

Coalition of Concerned Manufacturers and Businesses of Canada president Jocelyn Bamford spoke to the Commons government operations committee, saying "As small and medium-sized businesses we want to know, does everybody have the same opportunity to produce personal protective equipment and sell it, or is the federal government picking winners and losers?"

The company received a $93,564,000 contract on April 26 to manufacture masks in Quebec but in 2019, its last remaining Canadian plant was closed in Granby, Quebec.

"How many Canadian companies that we’ve contracted with have been given ten-year contracts similar to Medicom?" said Saskatchewan Conservative MP Kelly Block.

"Medicom I think is the only ten-year contract I’m aware of," replied deputy minister of public works, Bill Matthews.

Senior assistant deputy minister of industry, Mitch Davies testified at a committee hearing on June 5 that Medicom was picked as a supplier and competitors were not given notice.

"Dating back to the onset of the crisis and very significant activities in the early days to mobilize, we in the department reached out to firms that had the interest to scale up Canadian production," noted Davies.

"Medicom is a Canadian-headquartered company that produces personal protective equipment and they showed a willingness to move forward on a plan that would meet Canada’s time frame."

The Government of Quebec has since given Medicom a $4 million loan to build a factory in Montreal and SNC-Lavalin Group Inc. was hired as the contractor.

"Canadian companies are answering the call to protect our health care professionals with made-in-Canada solutions," noted Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at the time.

"This is exactly the kind of innovative, collaborative thinking we need."