The public servants who manage the National Emergency Strategic Stockpile (NESS) warned in early February that there was a shortage of the personal protective equipment (PPE) needed to weather a pandemic but it took weeks for the federal government to sign contracts for goods like N95 respirators, the masks used by health-care professionals to protect themselves from COVID-19. CBC News reviewed thousands of pages of documents released to the House of Commons government operations committee, including dozens of contracts signed between bureaucrats at Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC) and companies offering equipment to the federal government.