After analyzing thousands of documents tabled with the House of Commons health committee, CBC News revealed the Trudeau government missed an opportunity to purchase critical pandemic-related supplies at the onset of the pandemic.
Thousands of private businesses offered to supply the Canadian government with PPE at the beginning of the pandemic. The Trudeau Liberals also rejected an offer of N95 masks from Honeywell, a major US industrial conglomerate. These valuable respirators could have gone to health workers on the front lines.
The Trudeau Liberals instead made deals with Chinese companies who were being investigated for using slave labour.
Conservative MP Kelly Block made sure to raise questions about the Trudeau Liberals practice of buying Chinese made masks. In a piece she wrote for The Post Millennial in August 2020, the MP from Saskatchewan said:
"Uyghur forced labour is being used by at least 17 companies to manufacture personal protective equipment (PPE).
These horrifying reports should raise alarms for the Canadian government, which has signed dozens of contracts worth tens of millions of dollars with Chinese companies to manufacture PPE."
According to the June, 2020 Supplementary Estimates, cabinet estimated that $1.8 billion worth of PPE equipment was budgeted for "payments to acquire protective gear and medical equipment" following the Trudeau government's failure to stockpile.