A Grifols Plasma Donation Centre on Taylor Ave. in Winnipeg on March 13, 2026.Shannon VanRaes/The Globe and Mail
The Ontario NDP is calling on Health Canada to inspect three Grifols private plasma collection facilities that were issued licences last year without ever being inspected, amid concerns about deficiencies found at other locations.
The federal regulator says such inspections are not mandatory, but documents obtained by The Globe and Mail suggest Ontario’s provincial government has wondered why the inspections have not been carried out.
Grifols opened five locations in Ontario in 2025: one in Whitby, one in Hamilton, one in Cambridge and two in Toronto.
Grifols is the only major commercial collector of plasma in Canada, with 17 sites across the country. Plasma is a protein-rich fluid found in blood that is collected and processed into medicine.
Barcelona-headquartered Grifols operates in Canada as part of a partnership signed with Canadian Blood Services in 2022. Grifols pays donors, while CBS does not. A government-funded charity, CBS spends $1-billion annually procuring plasma-derived medicines, including from Grifols.
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The company has come under scrutiny after the deaths of two plasma donors in Winnipeg in recent months. Health Canada has said it could not establish a link between the deaths and the donation process, a judgement that the family of one deceased donor disputes because of inconsistencies between the autopsy report and government records.
Health Canada inspectors flagged multiple deficiencies at some Grifols centres, according to documents revealed by The Globe and Mail. For example, a December review of a Winnipeg location said staff did not always know how to respond to alarms on donation machines. Locations in Calgary and Regina were found non-compliant with regulations in December and January, although both remain open.
All places where blood or plasma is collected need to be licensed by Health Canada.
Health Canada told The Globe it conducted pre-licensing inspections of the Whitby and Hamilton locations in early 2025 and found them to be compliant.
The regulator said no inspections were carried out in the other three Ontario sites, which opened in the summer.
“A pre-inspection, before activities commence, is not required when licenced blood establishments in Canada are opening a new site,” Health Canada spokesperson André Gagnon said in an e-mail.
Grifols said in an unsigned statement that it welcomed any inspections.
Government e-mails obtained under access-to-information law in Nova Scotia suggest the Ontario government has privately questioned the lack of inspections.
An e-mail thread between Health Canada officials and a Nova Scotian public servant discussing a meeting of federal and provincial officials contains discussion of Ontario, where a provincial law bans paying donors for plasma. The law contains an exemption for CBS to pay donors if needed, and Ontario’s government has allowed Grifols to operate as an “agent” of CBS for the purposes of the exemption.
Ontario is “managing complexities that may not be experienced by other [provinces and territories],” wrote Pamela Leclerc, senior strategist, national blood file, at Nova Scotia’s Department of Health and Wellness.
“They’re looking to understand why not all Ontario Grifols facilities have been inspected by HC to support an upcoming briefing this week,” she continued in the Feb. 24 e-mail, using the acronym for Health Canada.
A federal official responded they would look into it. There are no e-mails directly from Ontario officials.
Ontario Health Minister Sylvia Jones‘s office did not have a response to the e-mail or the lack of inspections.
Ontario NDP MPP France Gélinas, her party’s health critic, said Health Canada should immediately inspect the facilities in Toronto and Cambridge, given what inspectors have found in other locations.
“How many other people’s health and lives have been put at risk?” she said.
She said Health Canada did a good job in the past regulating the blood system, when the licensed establishments were hospitals or Canadian Blood Services, which may have more robust internal oversight.
“The system hasn’t changed to adapt to the fact that for-profit blood collection is becoming more and more prevalent in many provinces,” she said.
Health Canada inspected Grifols’ head office in Oakville, Ont., starting January 28, because of issues identified during other investigations. Although the office does not collect blood, it was found non-compliant because of concerns related to donor screening and staff training.
After news of the deaths became public, Health Canada announced April 1 it was imposing conditions on Grifols’ licences because of “recurring, systemic deficiencies” identified during its inspections.
The conditions include limits on the number of donors seen at a time and measures to improve quality controls. The conditions took effect March 30.
Grifols has said it submitted detailed actions plans to Health Canada following the inspections and immediately began implementation to improve compliance.
Deaths connected to plasma donation are rare. Health Canada said it has records of three such deaths since 2016, all of which were in Winnipeg. That includes the deaths in October and January, and a third in 2018.
Manitoba Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara wrote to federal Health Minister Marjorie Michel in early May about oversight of plasma collections, their office said Friday.
Public discussion of the deaths, “along with the results of the investigation which outlined several areas of concern, have reinforced the need for strong and consistent regulatory safeguards and enforcement to ensure the health and well-being of all donors,” Mx. Asagwara wrote in the letter.