Health committee  Thank you for the question. You've referenced, certainly, the funding in budget 2022, which will cover a broad range of activities. We are quite pleased with respect to some of the steps we'll be taking in terms of the early warning systems we have, and we will be advancing a number of the issues that were raised in that external panel report.

Health committee  Mr. Chair, we'd be pleased to come back to the committee with that specific number. I don't have that number on hand in front of me.

Public Accounts committee  To reiterate, as Dr. Kochhar has said, the stockpile is monitored on an ongoing basis. As well, we certainly profit from our ongoing collaboration with the provinces and territories. As part of our governance structure in response to a public health event, a biological event, we have a logistics advisory committee whereby we are repeatedly talking to them about the variety of product holdings, as well as distribution models.

Government Operations committee  There are two things I'll highlight. We've had excellent information sharing with the provinces and territories on burn rates and stockpiling.

Government Operations committee  Mr. Chair, it's an excellent question. As we go forward, we will continue to work on a number of options, on life-cycle management and the objective of not having to move to disposal, which would be the last resort. We are working collectively with other government departments, a number of whom have requirements for personal protective equipment.

Government Operations committee  Mr. Chair, the national emergency strategic stockpile is managed centrally. The premise that Mr. Green has put forward would not be correct, no.

Government Operations committee  We would manage the supplies in a manner in which they could be distributed to the provinces within an appropriate time frame. We've set a 24-hour time frame. Certainly, disclosing the location of our specific commodities would not be something the Public Health Agency would put forward.

Government Operations committee  When the decision is taken to close a warehouse facility, all of the equipment that can be used is moved to other locations. It's moved centrally back to our central warehousing—

Government Operations committee  I'm not aware of a record of disposal of N95s from other warehouse locations.

Government Operations committee  Mr. Chair, certainly in my capacity at the Public Health Agency at that time, for those periods, I wouldn't be able to speak to the question that is being posed.

Government Operations committee  Mr. Chair, I've held two positions within the Public Health Agency: first as the director general for the centre for biosecurity within the health security infrastructure branch; and second, later, as the director general for the centre for emergency preparedness and response. Prior to moving—

Government Operations committee  Mr. Chair, I believe the document which MP Green is referring to is the 2006 pandemic plan, in which the 16 weeks for the entire system would include our provincial and territorial partners in terms of their level of pandemic readiness. The subsequent revision to that document, in 2011, did not have a specific stockpile target with respect to pandemic preparedness but rather was based on risk assessment.

Government Operations committee  Mr. Chair, I would like to clarify that each of the requests for assistance that are received are assessed to determine context, and also the need to determine how we distribute scarcity of supply. There were requests for assistance that were based on longer-term stockpiling, which would not have been addressed at the front end and would have been distributed across a time frame.

Government Operations committee  Mr. Chair, we thank the Office of the Auditor General for their report, and we've acknowledged that the agency was not as prepared as it could have been. We will be working forward, in response to the performance audit, to have a longer-term strategic plan for the national emergency strategic stockpile.

Government Operations committee  I am able to speak to, certainly, the repeated allocation of funding to the NESS program for specific asks.