I'm also struggling to understand why the biometrics collection was suspended back in March when Canada had well under 1,000 new cases per day but reopened 8 months later when we're hitting 6,000 cases per day. Assuming it took 8 months to organize some hand sanitizer...
Yes it takes that much of time if they would have followed some of these steps:
First they would have thought what needs to be done and options would have been explored
Secondly some committee would have been formed to give recommendations
Third step- Contacted some suppliers for samples
Fourth step- Tried those samples and few suppliers would have made to last stage to be selected
Fifth step-Background checks for the supplier
Sixth Step- Approved the budget to purchase
Seventh step- raised orders
Eighth step- Receipt of orders which would have been delayed due to pandemic
Ninth step - placed them in warehouse for 2 weeks
Tenth step- Trained people how to use it
Eleventh- After few weeks everyone would have been convinced that we can resume
Please note these are for understanding only and actual circumstances could have varied which could have delayed the process time further.