Mr.Chair, I want to assure my colleague that we are continuing to work with our industry representatives, our allies and our trading partners in China.
We'll now go to Ms. McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Senior Canadian bureaucrats received very credible reports in early January that China was procuring and hoarding PPE. As a member of cabinet, was the health minister aware?
Mr. Chair, from the very beginning of the outbreak in early January we were aware of the challenges our health sector would face, and we immediately began to work with the provinces and territories to understand what the need would be and how we could best prepare.