COVID-19: $5 billion lawsuit against Ottawa

The Canadian Industrial Sector Mobilization Plan to Fight COVID-19 is at the center of the complainants' allegations.

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This lawsuit includes the purchase of personal protective equipment to protect against COVID-19, including masks, gloves and medical gowns.

• Jean-Philippe Nadeau (View profile)Jean-Philippe Nadeau

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Canadian manufacturers of personal protective equipment are seeking more than $5 billion in damages from the federal government over its promise to purchase their products to fight the COVID-19 pandemic. Fifteen manufacturers and the association that represents them claim that the government misled them from the start of the health crisis.

The plaintiffs allege that the federal government made negligent and inaccurate claims that induced them to invest in innovation and the manufacturing and production of personal protective equipment, for example masks against COVID-19.

Ottawa invests 2 billion in the purchase of personal protective equipment

According to them, the government made misleading statements to the markets regarding direct aid to SMEs, flexible supply and long-term support for manufacturers .

They cite the Canadian Industrial Sector Mobilization Plan to Fight COVID-19, through which Ottawa is ;#x27;committed to taking new measures to directly help companies rapidly increase their equipment production or reorganize their manufacturing chains.

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However, the government would never have concluded an official contract on this subject with these companies Canadians.

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The pursuit of the Canadian Personal Protective Equipment Manufacturers Association and 15 of its members was filed in the Federal Court on February 7, 2023.

The lawsuit, of which Radio-Canada obtained a copy, was filed last week in Federal Court for alleged acts dating back to March 2020.

< p class="StyledBodyHtmlParagraph-sc-48221190-4 hnvfyV">The plaintiffs are 15 small and medium-sized businesses primarily based in Ontario, Manitoba and British Columbia.

To the&amp ;#x27;at the time, the appearance of COVID-19 had prompted the federal government and public health to establish extraordinary measures to prevent the spread of the disease by, for example, imposing the obligation to wear a health mask in public.

According to the document, the government had designated masks as being essential items to counter an airborne pandemic, even invoking a national security exception to purchase personal protective equipment and to create a strategic national emergency stockpile.

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Anita Anand was the federal Minister of Public Services and Procurement during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Les The plaintiffs allege that the government told businesses in June 2021 that it would sign a 10-year contract with the 15 SMEs and their association to compensate for the fact that Ottawa had purchased SMEs and their association. equipment to foreign companies.

The government is also said to have reversed its decision to order masks and other products to replenish your reserves.

In their suit, the plaintiffs claim that they have forged privileged ties with the federal government, thus creating a duty of care towards SMEs.

The 15 companies explain that they then quickly re-equipped themselves to manufacture protective equipment for Canadians.

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François- Philippe Champagne took over as head of the Federal Ministry of Innovation, Science and Industry during the second part of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The complainants believe that the government's promise to help them came from the highest levels and that it spread throughout all the departments that did business with them.

The Ministry of Innovation, Science and Industry as well as that of Public Services and Supply are particularly targeted in the document.< /p>

The plaintiffs allege that the government's false claims caused them to lose $88 million in investments and market share of& ;#x27;worth an estimated $5.4 billion over a 10-year period.

They support finally that the government preferred to support foreign competition despite the promises it had made to support Canadian industry.

This decision therefore deprived Canadian companies of fair and equitable access to the Ontario and Quebec markets as well as to the Canadian hospital market, we can read in the lawsuit.

None of these allegations have been proven in court and government lawyers have not&# x27;have not yet filed their defense document.

L'Canadian Manufacturers Association# x27;personal protective equipment did not respond to our interview requests.

The Federal Ministry of Justice said that “lawyers are currently reviewing the statement in detail to determine next steps” and will not make further comments at this time.

The Ministry of Innovation, Science and Industry was unable to react before publication of this article.

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