This story is part of The Big Spend, a CBC News investigation examining the unprecedented $240 billion the federal government handed out during the first eight months of the pandemic.
Canadian alcohol distillers who pivoted early to produce hand sanitizer to keep Canadians safe from COVID-19 are crying foul as their hopes of solving longer-term supply chain issues appear to have evaporated.
When the prime minister called on Canadian industry to retool to produce protective equipment in the early panic of the pandemic, dozens of distillers switched from making spirits to hand sanitizer.
At the time, it was scarce on store shelves.
So dozens of Canada’s distillers scrambled to produce tens of thousands of litres for free. At the height of the shortage, about a dozen distilleries in B.C. alone were supplying hospitals, government offices and emergency workers all over the province.
As the months wore on, some distilleries began to charge to cover the cost of making the sanitizer, but many continued to donate thousands of litres to people and organizations in need, being careful not to profiteer in a time of crisis.
CBC News has learned that, during that time period, the federal government spent hundreds of millions of tax dollars procuring sanitizer from outside Canada.
At True North Distilleries, spirits are a family business. Left to right, Heather, Scot, Samantha and Meghan spent six months working around the clock producing hand sanitizer after the pandemic caused a shortage in March. (Geoff Fontes/CBC News)
In total, more than $570 million worth of hand sanitizer has flowed into Canada from outside countries since March, according to Statistics Canada data.
Of that amount, Canada paid directly for at least $375 million’s worth. BYD Canada Co., a China-based car maker with a few employees and offices in Canada, was paid $252 million for sanitizer manufactured in its retooled Chinese factories.
More stories in this series:
Public Services and Procurement Canada told CBC in an email that of the 20.6 million litres of hand sanitizer bought, 52 per cent came from Canadian suppliers.
BYD was paid for 10 million litres of bottled medical-grade sanitizer, but there are no future plans to buy from the company.
Canada was faced with an “intense level of global competition” for medical supplies and moved to buy bulk one-time orders from international suppliers during the worldwide shortage, PSPC wrote.
Tyler Dyck, president of the Craft Distillers Guild of B.C., pivoted from whiskey making to hand sanitizer in March. His family runs Okanagan Spirits Craft Distillery in Vernon, B.C. (Curtis Allen/CBC News)
Smaller players shut out
That millions of tax dollars were paid out confounds distillers who were producing sanitizer for free. Many assumed that expedited changes to tax requirements and regulations to allow sanitizer production held promise that the government would continue to encourage at-home manufacturing. They requested compensation for supplies and in some cases consideration for longer-term contracts.
But none of that materialized for the smaller players.
The government of B.C. did buy about 7,000 litres of sanitizer, about a million dollars worth, from Parallel 49 Brewing Co. in Vancouver. But soon after, the province began shipping in sanitizer through a federal supply source, according to provincial officials, who said the priority was finding a “reliable source.”
Canada eventually signed agreements to make millions of litres of sanitizer with large Canadian companies: Fluid Energy Group in Calgary, Hawktree Solutions in Ottawa and Irving Oil in New Brunswick.
Meanwhile, distillers like Tyler Dyck spent nine months making and donating the disinfectant. He’s the president of the Craft Distillers Guild of B.C. and helps run his family distillery in Vernon and Kelowna.
“It really is like a sucker punch in the gut,” said Dyck, CEO of Okanagan Spirits Craft Distillery.
B.C. distiller Tyler Dyck and others in the industry answered the government’s call to Canadian businesses to step up and help early in the pandemic and retooled their production lines from spirits to sanitizer. They were never compensated for the effort even as the government paid foreign suppliers to meet the demand distillers say they could have handled domestically. 2:26
By summer, Canada had agreements with larger companies to deliver 20 million litres of sanitizer. While that solved the immediate shortage, distillers say it ignored their bids for contracts or at least compensation.
“You are bypassing people that have done the right thing from Day 1,” said Dyck.
Dyck said he has been called naive, but felt it was his family’s duty to produce the COVID protection when nobody else could. His company spent about $200,000 donating sanitizer.
“For our family … it’s the thing that made us feel more proud than anything,” he said.
Other distillers began to charge for sanitizer after weeks turned into months, to offset supply costs for things like bottles and chemicals needed.
Scot Stewart is the head distiller at True North Distilleries. His hand sanitizer was being used in about 14 per cent of the province at the peak of pandemic production. (Geoff Fontes/CBC News)
‘Very disappointing’
In Toronto, the Spirit of York Distillery was the first to distribute sanitizer. The owner says he got numerous calls from brokers looking to resell his raw alcohol and turn a profit.
“We couldn’t get a contract with the [federal] government no matter how hard we tried. It’s actually very disappointing,” said Gerry Guitor.
While some complained that distillery-made sanitizer can smell of booze, makers say it worked and created jobs.
Scot Stewart is the head distiller at True North Distillery in Grand Forks, B.C., another ad hoc hand-sanitizer maker.
“We scrambled and we scrambled a lot. We worked hard to catch up so people weren’t all living bottle to bottle,” said Stewart.
His bid to get a contract to keep supplying — or compensation for the $103,000 he’s spent — has been ignored.
“I am frustrated. We stepped up. The federal government eventually bought from offshore, and [sanitizer] started showing up in tankers in Vancouver harbour, but we kept donating,” said Stewart.
Stewart has spent the past nine months churning out B.C.-made hand sanitizer, only to be left with the tab and no federal contract to continue making it as she had hoped. (Geoff Fontes/CBC News)
His MP, Richard Cannings of South Okanagan-West Kootenay, lobbied Ottawa for distillers in his riding.
“In normal times, of course, companies wouldn’t produce material without a contract. But we were in very different times. There was a lot of fear and unknown. [Distillers] thought they were going to do the right thing and help the country,” said Cannings, an NDP member.
CBC asked federal ministries about compensation for the distillers. A spokesperson for the Minister of Innovation Science and Industry Navdeep Bains said Ottawa is grateful to the roughly 1,000 companies that pivoted to produce COVID protections such as masks and sanitizer.
“With personal protective equipment, we started with virtually no Canadian production, no self-sufficiency and a precarious international marketplace,” the email said. “We are immensely proud of how Canadian industry has stepped up to the plate.”
VANCOUVER – Contract negotiations resume today in Vancouver in a labour dispute that has paralyzed container cargo shipping at British Columbia’s ports since Monday.
The BC Maritime Employers Association and International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514 are scheduled to meet for the next three days in mediated talks to try to break a deadlock in negotiations.
The union, which represents more than 700 longshore supervisors at ports, including Vancouver, Prince Rupert and Nanaimo, has been without a contract since March last year.
The latest talks come after employers locked out workers in response to what it said was “strike activity” by union members.
The start of the lockout was then followed by several days of no engagement between the two parties, prompting federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon to speak with leaders on both sides, asking them to restart talks.
MacKinnon had said that the talks were “progressing at an insufficient pace, indicating a concerning absence of urgency from the parties involved” — a sentiment echoed by several business groups across Canada.
In a joint letter, more than 100 organizations, including the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Business Council of Canada and associations representing industries from automotive and fertilizer to retail and mining, urged the government to do whatever it takes to end the work stoppage.
“While we acknowledge efforts to continue with mediation, parties have not been able to come to a negotiated agreement,” the letter says. “So, the federal government must take decisive action, using every tool at its disposal to resolve this dispute and limit the damage caused by this disruption.
“We simply cannot afford to once again put Canadian businesses at risk, which in turn puts Canadian livelihoods at risk.”
In the meantime, the union says it has filed a complaint to the Canada Industrial Relations Board against the employers, alleging the association threatened to pull existing conditions out of the last contract in direct contact with its members.
“The BCMEA is trying to undermine the union by attempting to turn members against its democratically elected leadership and bargaining committee — despite the fact that the BCMEA knows full well we received a 96 per cent mandate to take job action if needed,” union president Frank Morena said in a statement.
The employers have responded by calling the complaint “another meritless claim,” adding the final offer to the union that includes a 19.2 per cent wage increase over a four-year term remains on the table.
“The final offer has been on the table for over a week and represents a fair and balanced proposal for employees, and if accepted would end this dispute,” the employers’ statement says. “The offer does not require any concessions from the union.”
The union says the offer does not address the key issue of staffing requirement at the terminals as the port introduces more automation to cargo loading and unloading, which could potentially require fewer workers to operate than older systems.
The Port of Vancouver is the largest in Canada and has seen a number of labour disruptions, including two instances involving the rail and grain storage sectors earlier this year.
A 13-day strike by another group of workers at the port last year resulted in the disruption of a significant amount of shipping and trade.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
The Royal Canadian Legion says a new partnership with e-commerce giant Amazon is helping boost its veterans’ fund, and will hopefully expand its donor base in the digital world.
Since the Oct. 25 launch of its Amazon.ca storefront, the legion says it has received nearly 10,000 orders for poppies.
Online shoppers can order lapel poppies on Amazon in exchange for donations or buy items such as “We Remember” lawn signs, Remembrance Day pins and other accessories, with all proceeds going to the legion’s Poppy Trust Fund for Canadian veterans and their families.
Nujma Bond, the legion’s national spokesperson, said the organization sees this move as keeping up with modern purchasing habits.
“As the world around us evolves we have been looking at different ways to distribute poppies and to make it easier for people to access them,” she said in an interview.
“This is definitely a way to reach a wider number of Canadians of all ages. And certainly younger Canadians are much more active on the web, on social media in general, so we’re also engaging in that way.”
Al Plume, a member of a legion branch in Trenton, Ont., said the online store can also help with outreach to veterans who are far from home.
“For veterans that are overseas and are away, (or) can’t get to a store they can order them online, it’s Amazon.” Plume said.
Plume spent 35 years in the military with the Royal Engineers, and retired eight years ago. He said making sure veterans are looked after is his passion.
“I’ve seen the struggles that our veterans have had with Veterans Affairs … and that’s why I got involved, with making sure that the people get to them and help the veterans with their paperwork.”
But the message about the Amazon storefront didn’t appear to reach all of the legion’s locations, with volunteers at Branch 179 on Vancouver’s Commercial Drive saying they hadn’t heard about the online push.
Holly Paddon, the branch’s poppy campaign co-ordinator and bartender, said the Amazon partnership never came up in meetings with other legion volunteers and officials.
“I work at the legion, I work with the Vancouver poppy office and I go to the meetings for the Vancouver poppy campaign — which includes all the legions in Vancouver — and not once has this been mentioned,” she said.
Paddon said the initiative is a great idea, but she would like to have known more about it.
The legion also sells a larger collection of items at poppystore.ca.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
