https://torontosun.com/news/local-ne...ct-to-make-ppe
Quebec company with no factory in Canada lands 10-year $133M sole-sourced federal deal to make PPE
Medicom has since received a $4M loan from the Government of Québec to build a new factory in Montréal and the contractor hired was SNC-Lavalin Group
A company in Quebec has been awarded $133,486,868 in sole-sourced federal orders to manufacture PPE even though it didn’t have a factory in Canada.
AMD Medicom Inc. was given the ten-year contract and some MPs are now demanding to see the terms of the contract, according to a report by Blacklock’s Reporter on Tuesday.
“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” Jocelyn Bamford, president of the Coalition of Concerned Manufacturers and Businesses of Canada, earlier told the Commons government operations committee.
Records show Cabinet signed its initial agreement with AMD Medicom on Canadian companies are answering the call to protect our health care professionals with made-in-Canada solutions,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said at the time.
“This is exactly the kind of innovative, collaborative thinking we need.”
Medicom received an initial $19,922,868 contract to ship masks from its factories in Augusta, Georgia as well as China, Taiwan and France.
On April 26 it was given a $93,564,000 contract to make masks in Quebec but it closed its last Canadian plant in 2019, in Granby, Que., in 2019.
“How many Canadian companies that we’ve contracted with have been given ten-year contracts similar to Medicom?” Conservative MP Kelly Block from Carlton Trail-Eagle Creek in Saskatchewan.
“Medicom I think is the only ten-year contract I’m aware of,” replied Bill Matthews, deputy minister of public works.
Medicom has since received a $4 million loan from the Government of Québec to build a new factory in Montréal and the contractor hired was SNC-Lavalin Group Inc.
Neither Medicom nor its federal sponsors would say how many masks the Montréal factory has produced to date.
Mitch Davies, senior assistant deputy minister of industry, testified at a June 5 committee hearing that staff picked Medicom as a supplier without notice to competitors.
“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,” said 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.”
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