Canada has its priorities all wrong when it comes to personal protective equipment (PPE) manufacturing and distribution. Through a series of missteps, the government put its citizens in danger.
Negligence and mismanagement resulted in Canada shipping away vital PPE supplies, allowing foreign entities to purchase existing stock, and later importing poor-quality replacements at a time when Canadians needed them most.
Canada should never have had a PPE shortage, whether it’s masks, gowns or medical equipment like respirators.
At the beginning of April, it dawned on the Canadian government that hospitals would face a major medical gear shortage as countries all over the world restricted export of essential supplies.
As the largest producer of northern bleached softwood kraft pulp, and with an established pulp industry that goes back more than 200 years, there was no reason why Canada could not have been the most prepared country in the world when it came to, at the very least, basic medical masks.