Canada’s public health agency may have violated its own rules on the sale of licensed medical devices by selling ventilators costing $22,600 each for scrap metal last February, documents say.
The ventilators were sold despite Health Canada’s own directives forbidding the sale of licensed medical devices for scrap, according to documents obtained by Blacklock’s Reporter. The licences for the ventilators were not revoked until around a month after the agency began auctioning units off, the report notes.
The federal government made emergency orders for more than 40,500 ventilators at a cost of $700 million at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. While more than 27,000 were delivered, only 500 were actually used.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had mentioned StarFish Medical by name in 2020 in the early months of the pandemic saying, “This is exactly the kind of innovative and collaborative thinking we need.”
Another producer of ventilators, Baylis Medical, was also tasked by the federal government to provide ventilators during the pandemic and awarded a $237.4 million contract.
The company, owned at that time by former Liberal MP Frank Baylis, sent 206 ventilators to Canadian provinces and territories and donated at least 839 units overseas to India, Nepal, Pakistan, and Ukraine.
Baylis Medical was also awarded a $3.7 million contract in 2023 by Canada’s health department to provide ongoing maintenance for the ventilators, which were then returned to warehouse stockpiles afterward. Mr. Baylis had resigned from his position as MP prior to his company signing the deal with the Liberal government for the ventilators.
Ventilators are not the only pandemic product bought in bulk by the federal government without being used. COVID-19 vaccines were also purchased in large quantities, while at least 52.9 million doses have expired and been discarded due to a drop off in demand for the shots among the Canadian public.
