(Ottawa, Canada) – Canada wrote off $331 million in expired or damaged emergency medical supplies in 2025–26, according to an auditor general's report tabled October 29 that found persistent failures in federal stockpile management.

The National Emergency Strategic Stockpile provides backup supplies when provincial, territorial or federal inventories cannot meet public-health emergency needs. The audit examined its management from April 2024 through March 2026.

At March 31, the stockpile held roughly 84 million expired items, 97 per cent of them personal protective equipment. Keeping expired protective equipment in storage over two years cost $6.3 million. Those figures describe the audit's historical snapshot, rather than an October inventory count.

Auditors found that the Public Health Agency of Canada had not assessed needs or set targets for any of 15 categories of social-service supplies, or for 80 per cent of medical equipment. It had completed five of 14 actions in a 2024 management plan by March 2026.

More than $20 million in pharmaceuticals were discarded in 2025 after warehouse problems, including inadequate freezer space and temperature monitoring. The report says deficiencies identified in 2022 and 2023 had not been corrected before the loss.

The agency nevertheless met pharmaceutical inventory targets and answered all 81 requests for supplies received from governments during 2024–25 and 2025–26. It distributed $27 million in supplies in 2025–26.

In responses published with the audit, PHAC accepted recommendations to improve inventory planning, surplus management and inspection follow-up. It acknowledged that its assessment records did not consistently demonstrate a systematic planning process.

The agency said pandemic purchases had created exceptional surplus holdings, and that divestment depended partly on recipients' capacity and warehouse throughput. It also said funding and market availability can limit inventory targets. Provincial and territorial systems retain substantial supplies of their own, with the federal stockpile providing emergency surge capacity.

Source: Office of the Auditor General, report overview, October 29, 2026; Office of the Auditor General, October 29 news release; Full audit, including PHAC responses, printed pages 24–27.

Editorial illustration of emergency medical storage; not a photograph of a PHAC facility.