Ottawa says national security incident, error at emergency medication stockpile unrelated

There was no connection between a national security incident at the country’s emergency stockpile warehouse in 2024 and an error that caused the loss of $20-million of medication, according to the Public Health Agency of Canada.The agency is correcting a statement one of its top officials made at a House of Commons committee last week.The committee had been investigating an incident in December 2024, in which the agency lost $20 million worth of pharmaceutical products from the National Emergency Stockpile after a freezer door came open.Much of the discussion was held behind closed doors because of national security concerns.During the public portion of the meeting, Conservative MP Dan Mazier questioned Stacey Mantha, the director general of PHAC’s emergency management branch, about a possible security concern.Mazier asked if PHAC was aware of “hostile foreign actors” who tried to access the emergency stockpile facility after the incident with the freezer.Mantha replied that PHAC was “aware, through a vendor that we work closely with, that there was interest from a foreign national in obtaining access to our warehouse location. They did not.”She also told Mazier she would report back to the committee about which country the individual was from. She did not say whether PHAC believed the two incidents were related.Mazier said in an interview that the response raised serious national security concerns and he would be pushing for more information.In response to questions from The Canadian Press, a spokesperson for PHAC said in a statement that the incident happened in November, a month before the loss of medication, and the two were “not related in any way.”“PHAC received a request to access a warehouse in the context of equipment maintenance. This access was denied and the inquiry was flagged to corporate security as a suspicious incident,” said Anna Maddison in a statement.“As access was denied, the nationality of the individual seeking access was not further verified.”The incident was reported to “a lead security agency,” the statement said.The agency said it was not in fact sure the individual involved was a foreign national. In response to further questions on Monday, a spokesperson said a vendor told PHAC that the manufacturer of some freezer units offered to do “supplemental maintenance outside of the annual schedule, and that this would be conducted by personnel it was not sure were North American based.”PHAC officials decided that was irregular and flagged the request to security, and did not try to determine where the manufacturer was from.The statement said the freezers in question were different units than the ones involved in the $20-million loss a month later.It also said there were no other similar security incidents in 2024 or 2025.Maddison said the information is being corrected with the committee.The National Emergency Stockpile is a network of warehouses across the country where the government stores medical supplies, vaccines and emergency response equipment.

Ottawa says national security incident, error at emergency medication stockpile unrelated

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