OTTAWA -- The federal government is establishing a new personal protective equipment (PPE) reserve, where essential services can buy things like disinfectant wipes and non-medical face coverings.
The Essential Services Contingency Reserve will be operational "within the coming weeks," according to spokesperson from Public Services and Procurement Minister Anita Anand's office.
Anand announced the creation of the reserve, which is a part of the Safe Restart Agreement with provinces, during a Tuesday press conference.
"This will be a temporary reserve of critical supplies and equipment that can be purchased at cost by essential services sectors that have been unable to acquire these items elsewhere," she said.
While some PPE support is already being provided for front-line health-care workers, this latest supply is focused on providing PPE to essential service providers who work beyond the health-care system. This includes people working in grocery stores, pharmacies and maintenance, among many other services that Public Safety Canada has identified as essential on its website
These organizations and associations can apply online and, if they're deemed eligible, will be able to purchase PPE at cost.
"The reserve will stock PPE and critical supplies, including KN95 respirators, surgical masks, non-medical cloth and disposable masks, gowns, face shields, hand sanitizer, disinfectant wipes and gloves," a press release from Anand's office said.
As of July 14, the government has received 176,516,500 surgical masks, 56,188,305 pairs of gloves, and 367 ventilators. Canada has also obtained 11,177,690 litres of hand sanitizer, 9,173,576 gowns, 27,087,841 face shields and 22,665,310 N95 respirators. These purchases began in January, and thousands more of each product have also been ordered.
Canada's PPE stockpile was an issue in the early days in the pandemic, with Health Minister Patty Hajdu admitting in early April that Canada "likely did not have enough" personal protective equipment stockpiled ahead of this pandemic.
This came in addition to a global run on PPE, with countries racing one another to procure the global supply. That rush on PPE coincided with many of the world's PPE producers shutting down their factories. China produces a lion’s share of the world's supply of PPE, and when the COVID-19 pandemic erupted, the country closed many of its factories.
"Suddenly, 80 per cent of the supply for the rest of the world just disappeared," Guillaume Laverdure, the North American president for Medicom Inc., a Montreal-based medical supplier, told CTV News on March 24.
Anand assured Canadians that Canada's PPE supply has been steadily growing as a result of procurement efforts over the past few months.
"We are seeing results," Anand said on Tuesday.
With files from CTV News' Sarah Turnbull
