Ottawa Scrapped 99 Percent of Ventilators Bought for $280 Million

Plastic-covered ventilators are seen in the hallway at the Health Sciences Centre in Winnipeg on Dec. 8, 2020. (The Canadian Press/Mikaela MacKenzie)

Millions of dollars’ worth of ventilators the federal government had purchased from a Montreal company during the pandemic have been discarded, according to access-to-information records.

Among the 8,200 ventilators delivered by CAE Inc., 8,180, or 99 percent, were “slated for sale as scrap metal,” according to one of the records obtained by Blacklock’s Reporter. The record, released by the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) and reviewed by The Epoch Times, did not show what became of the other 20 devices.

CAE, a high-technology firm focused on civil aviation and defence and security, entered ventilator manufacturing early in the COVID-19 pandemic. In a June 17, 2020, press release, the company announced that its ventilator had been certified by Health Canada, two months after it signed a contract with Ottawa to manufacture and supply 10,000 ventilators.

The firm was awarded a roughly $283 million sole-sourced contract on April 9, 2020, about a month after it laid off 1,500 employees, reported Blacklock’s Reporter.

“The agility shown by CAE in designing and succeeding to have the CAE Air1 ventilator certified in a fraction of the usual time is a testament to the strength of CAE’s innovation, engineering talent, and advanced manufacturing capabilities,” CAE President and CEO Marc Parent said in the June 2020 press release.

The government records did not specify why CAE’s 8,180 ventilators were scrapped, though a note in the PHAC document said “CAE did not maintain a Medical Device License authorization by Health Canada.” The records also did not indicate if any of the CAE ventilators were put to use in a medical setting before being slated for sale as scrap metal.

CAE devices had failed Health Canada tests twice and were considered defective, according to internal emails within the Prime Minister’s Office obtained by Blacklock’s. “CAE’s first delivery proved deficient,” stated a Sept. 10, 2020, staff email. “Problems were serious.”

A second review found “significant shortcomings with patient safety implications,” the internal email said.

CAE spokesperson Anne von Finckenstein declined to comment on the federal government’s decision to discard the ventilators.

“We remain proud to have designed and manufactured a ventilator during a time of urgent need,” she said in a July 15 emailed statement.

The Epoch Times reached out to the Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC) and PHAC for comment but did not receive a response by publication time.

The CAE ventilators were not the only batch of devices the government had purchased during the pandemic that were sold as scrap. StarFish Medical had secured a contract to deliver 7,500 ventilators for $169 million, or roughly $22,533 per ventilator, Liberal MP Brenda Shanahan told the Commons Ethics Committee on Nov. 9, 2020.

StarFish-manufactured ventilators, branded “Canadian Emergency Ventilators Inc.,” were also labelled as “scrap metal” and sold to recycling organizations. According to a PSPC document obtained by Blacklock’s Reporter through an access-to-information request, this was done to help the government further understand” the recycling business.

According to the notice, several batches of StarFish ventilators and units requiring assembly have been auctioned off since August 2022, in some cases with parts still in their original factory plastic wrapping.

The sales in August 2022 occurred about a month after Ottawa re-established travel restrictions, including mandatory random testing, amid ongoing pandemic concerns. The World Health Organization declared an end to the COVID-19 emergency nine months later, on May 5, 2023.

Facing scrutiny, including from the Opposition Conservatives, Health Canada said in April that it could not find records on the purchase of the new StarFish Medical ventilators later sold as scrap.

Auditor General Karen Hogan has reported that nearly 14,000 ventilators bought under a $700 million pandemic-era program were immediately warehoused as surplus. These figures were disclosed at the request of Conservative MP Cheryl Gallant and obtained by Blacklock’s Reporter earlier this month.

The records show that 37,500 ventilators were ordered from four Canadian manufacturers during the pandemic. Of these, 27,499 were delivered. Nearly half, or 13,614 ventilators, were declared surplus and some sold as scrap, such as the StarFish devices.

Matthew Horwood contributed to this report.