St. Catharines MPP Jennie Stevens is teaming up with her New Democrat colleague Nickel Belt MPP France Gélinas to lobby the provincial government to ensure the procurement service companies it uses are transparent and accountable.
Stevens introduced a private member’s motion in the legislature Wednesday that calls on the government to “address a procurement process that lacks a made-in-Ontario solution,” while Gélinas introduced a private member’s bill to promote transparency and accountability in the funding of health-care services in the province.
“Together, we can elevate the situation, fix a broken system once and for all,” Stevens said during an online media conference Thursday.
“It’s really simple. Making medicine in Ontario makes sense so we should be doing that at all costs.
“Once we lose high-skilled manufacturing jobs, we all know they’re hard to bring back.”
Brigitte Kiecken, president of St. Catharines-based Biolyse Pharma Corp., joined the MPPs to share her company’s experience working with large procurement service companies.
She said the company has had negative experiences with two buying groups, including one “that we don’t even bother to bid with anymore.”
“The other, when we questioned some of the RFP procedures, we were met with disregard and a heavy hand to the point afterwards to disqualify us completely from bidding,” she said.
“This is affecting the company in a terrible way. We can only count on a few markets in Canada now and it’s cutting our revenues by about 60 per cent.”
Kiecken said the company has been trying to make up losses by increasing international sales of the injectable chemotherapy drugs it has manufactured for 25 years, “but these are not always easy to acquire.”
“Our experience with the buying group has just been terrible, from the contractual terms and conditions with a laundry list of no responsibility on their part,” she said. “It’s a terrible blow to the company.”
In a recent interview, Kiecken said problems began in 2019 when Etobicoke-based HealthPRO Procurement Services Inc. awarded a contract for supplying chemotherapy drugs, such as docetaxel, to a foreign company offering them at a higher price.
After Biolyse contacted HealthPRO numerous times to request clarification, Kiecken said her company was disqualified from bidding on 2022 contracts.
In response, the company said it follows fair procurement practices that comply with all procurement regulations, and awards contracts based on priorities including product quality, reliable supply assurance, and best value, she said.
The company said Biolyse was precluded from participating in the 2022 bidding process “due to issues which are currently the subject of an ongoing legal proceeding.”
During the media conference, Gélinas said Biolyse “has come to our rescue countless times when there were drug shortages, and now with the process that HealthPro has put in place, they don’t allow them to bid.”
“This makes no sense,” she said.
Gélinas said Biolyse is not alone, but other companies that have faced similar challenges “don’t want to speak up because there’s a power imbalance.”
“It is inconceivable that a company like Biolyse would have to close their doors because the group purchasing organization right here in Ontario refuses to do business with them,” she said. “This is not acceptable, and it is just one example.”
Gélinas said her private member’s bill has been debated in the legislature, “but it never moved any further.”
“The idea of the press conference this morning is really to put pressure on the (Premier Doug) Ford government to do the right thing.”
