Masks that we supposed to be routed to Canada would have been resold to the highest bidder when the stocks were about to leave China.
"They're playing hard right now", says a source in Quebec City. "You must understand there are secured orders and unsecured orders".
Las month, a mask cargo bought for Quebec that was transiting through Europe would have strangely arrived smaller than expected.
These last few days, the US have bought back, cash and three times the price, a stock of masks destined to France, straight from the tarmac at the Chinese airport. The plane eventually flew to the US rather than France. The news was confirmed by two heads of regions in France.
"This also happened to us", says a source in the know about supplying of Canada in China. The source alludes to a European country, but Radio-Canada was not able to confirm the identity of the state in question.
"There is a lot of competition on the ground in China between Europe, American, etc. Logistics are hard", explains the source. "The battle is on to procure the equipment".
In Ottawa, our sources allude to a tense international competitive climate without however confirming theft of masks, even if rumors are spreading.
"There is a whole saga in the backstage about stocks that don't exist or disappear" explained on Wednesday the Health minister of Newfoundland-Labrador, John Haggie. He states that it was a discussion topic during the Canadian and Provincial Health ministers teleconference on Tuesday evening.
Talks are ongoing between provinces and the federal government to secure order.
Thursday, the prime minister said he was "very worried" about the possibility of a rerouting of medical equipment. Without confirming the truth of these allegations, Mr. Trudeau said the situation would be followed up on.
Wednesday, he stated that "our embassy in China is following up to ensure that we will get our orders. It's hard because all these countries are trying to get their hands on the same equipment."
On the same day, Ottawa recognized that it likely does not have enough personal protection equipment in its emergency supplies to face the current COVID-19 pandemic.
The federal Health minister Patty Hajdu made mention on Wednesday of an "extremely competitive climate" for resupplying because many countries deplete their medical protection equipment.
"We work 24 hours a day to procure this equipment in a global context where this equipment is extremely restricted" added the minister.
The French newspaper "Le canard enchaîné" stated Wednesday that Canada was part of the countries that were ready to pay three, sometimes four times the price to obtain masks in China. We haven't been able to confirm this information.
Wednesday, the Quebec prime minister François Legault was questioned about the possibility that masks were stolen from Quebec. He did not deny it but stated: "I am under the impression we have rather won this battle, even against American States. Some are already short on equipment whereas we still have a week's worth and orders are coming in every day."
During his daily press conference on Thursday, the prime minister recognized that certain countries were "playing hard" and that he heard of stories of rerouted cargo.
The company Medicom in Pointe-Claire manufactures masks in its factories in China, in Taiwan, in the US and in France. They assure the deliveries are going well.
"We know who we buy them from and we are get everything we are buy" says the company's CEO Guillaume Laverdure.
He recognizes that "it's complicated because you have to know where and from whom to buy. The is a limited production capacity and an exponential demand. So yes, it has created tensions on the market."
On March 31st, the shipping company DHL published a warning on their website about shipments that were stopped after orders were passed: "Certain governments imposed limits on the export of personal protection equipment and masks outside of their borders [...] The situation on the ground is changing rapidly".
A dew days ago, France published a decree that allows the requisition of equipment produced in or imported to its territory for use by its health system. The equipment produced by Medicom in France will therefore be only going to France.
India has also forbidden the export of masks, ventilators and protection medical equipment.
The United States do not have any restrictions at this time according to Medicom.
Internationally, the mask delivery saga continues. In March, Italy complained that the Czech Republic had seized hundreds of thousands of masks that were destined to it.
As for the Netherlands, they had to get rid of hundreds of thousands or faulty masks imported from China.
Ottawa announced on Tuesday a 2 billion dollar investment in medical equipment and asked local businesses to start manufacturing them on Canadian soil to guarantee the supply.
