Bains: Domestic industry now supplying half of Canada's PPE needs
OTTAWA — Innovation Minister Navdeep Bains said Canada is now buying almost half of its personal protective equipment from domestic companies, just as the coronavirus’ second wave is hitting much of the country.
Bains told POLITICO that a pivot by industry early in the pandemic has helped Canada become less dependent on products purchased on highly competitive international markets.
In March, he said, Canada was buying around 0.2 percent of its PPE from Canadian sources.
“Today we're close to 50 percent,” Bains said in a telephone interview. “I think it’s safe to say that we will not be 100 percent self-sufficient, but we are definitely tracking in the right direction… That's up from virtually zero percent in a span of a few months."
Bains said more than 6,500 companies offered to retool and scale their operations to produce PPE, which includes masks, gloves and gowns. Canada now has 1,000 companies making the equipment across the country, he added.
The production boost has better positioned Canada to become a PPE exporter, he said. Bains argued Canadian suppliers will have access to huge markets like the United States and Europe, thanks to trade deals like the renewed NAFTA and the Canada-European Union agreement.
What all of this can mean for the pursuit of a greener economy: Bains said this kind of collaboration between government and the private sector can be applied to other areas, such as efforts to bolster the green recovery.
Last week, the Trudeau government’s Speech from the Throne pledged to launch a new fund to attract investments for the production of zero-emissions products, including electric vehicle batteries. The government also promised to cut corporate tax rates in half for clean technology firms.
Bains said Canada has competitive advantages when it comes to its labor force and its natural resources sector, such as mining.
“And so our view is why not advance this strategy that plays to that skilled workforce, that plays to our ability to manufacture and leverage our resources?” Bains said. “We want to be a world leader in EV battery manufacturing. We've got … cobalt, nickel, lithium, graphite. We know we have a labor force that can build really complicated high-value added products here.”
The electric vehicle opportunity: The Trudeau government is banking on where consumers are headed. Bains said just a few years ago the demand for electric vehicles was around 2 million. In 10 years from now, he predicted demand to be 20 times higher. “Over 40 million people are going to be wanting to purchase electric vehicles,” he said.
Last week, for example, California Gov. Gavin Newsom ordered the state to ban new gas vehicles by 2035.
The federal government, Bains said, is “actively pursuing many leads and working with many companies,” to bring investments to Canada. He noted that there’s a lot of promise and hope around an investment by Ford Motor Company of Canada to secure a mandate to build zero emission vehicles in Oakville, Ontario.
