COVID-19 ventilators purchased under a $169.5 million contract by Canada’s health agency have been sold as scrap metal, according to government records.

New ventilator parts in unopened shipping cartons bearing the Canadian Emergency Ventilators branding were auctioned off during a three-month period ending in February 2023, according to records obtained by Blacklock’s Reporter. The ventilators were bought by the Public Health Agency of Canada under a sole-sourced contract.

The ventilator parts were sold for as little as $6 a carton out of a warehouse in Concord, Ont., by GC Surplus. The Canadian Emergency Ventilators were listed as “scrap metal.”