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VIDEO
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manufacturers of masks and other
personal protective equipment needed during the pandemic are suing the federal government seeking more than5 billion doll they alleg the government misled them 15 companies that retooled in 2020 to make masks respirators and other protective equipment claim the government broke its promise to buy their products and bought from foreign firms instead the companies alleged that resulted in $88 million of investment losses as well as a further 5.4 billion in projected lost opportunities over a 10-year period because they claim the government also backed out of long-term contracts the allegations have not been tested in court a global news investigation looked into one of the companies that did receive a significant Federal contract during the pandemic it's called btnx and it supplied rapid tests it received billions from the federal government and even though it's a Canadian company its supply chain stretched far beyond our borders Jeff explains George Irwin's family ran this Canadian toy company for three generations but when the pandemic hit and borders closed they pivoted production to make masks with antimicrobial filters answering the call from Ottawa for canadi Ian manufacturers to help we need a sustainable stable supply of these products and that means making them at home there was encouragement from the federal government but after 3 years and invested this is what's left of Irwin's Factory he says he's now facing bankruptcy and risks losing his home Irwin never received a single order from any level of government I'm overwhelmed from you know a sadness point of view the people that were buying masks went back to their old Legacy suppliers and most of those suppliers were offshore one Canadian company that landed the largest Medical Supply deal of the btnx it received about $2 billion from Ottawa for 400 million covid-19 rapid tests btnx is based near Toronto but its rapid tests are made in China and so is there any manufacturing done in Canada no the company's CEO says when the pandemic hit they found a Chinese manufacturer that was producing rapid tests after winning the government contract btnx purchased this distribution center the CEO says btnx is two dozen staff mostly handle sales and quality assurance manufacturing here he says is prohibitively expensive we have some packaging capability here but most of it is done in China in its application to health can Canada btnx indicated its tests were made in China but the company's Distributors meanwhile described the test as engineered and designed in Canada the company's website and press releases described itself as a Canadian manufacturer which technically is true under Canadian law if someone Imports and sells a medical device under their own name and is responsible for labeling or assigning it to a purpose they can call themselves a manufacturer companies will tend to call themselves what they feel is going to put them in the best position uh in this case probably to make a sale but experts say ottawa's decision to award the large contract to a company Manufacturing in China raises questions about what the government knew or should have known Federal officials admitted to Global News that before awarding the lucrative contract to btnx no one from the government ever visited the company's headquarters at the time it was a few small office units inside this business Mall in North Toronto with no manufacturing capacity that type of due diligence doesn't take a lot to do and when it's completely bypassed there really is no excuse internal emails and Communications from federal and provincial Health officials revealed confusion describing btnx as having made early advances and produced a non-foreign workplace rapid test officials with public services and procurement Canada told Global News in the scrambled to secure pandemic supplies they were short on time and options but other local manufacturers say different to be frank of course we were hoping for more within months of the pandemic Jen osan's company was producing nearly a million rapid tests per day in Vancouver creating hundreds of local jobs their test performed well and cost less than BTN X's tests but their contract with Ottawa fell far short of their capacity and expectations we were uh able to do much more even from what the government has has requested from us um three to four times more than what the government was able to grant us overall only about 6% of the rapid tests purchased by the government made like George Irwin the vast majority of Manufacturers who produced medical supplies in Canada for the pandemic are now out of business if another pandemic hits Ottawa may find them unable or unwilling to help Jeff sule Global News
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