Co-operative will help smaller organizations order protective equipment

WATERLOO REGION — A new cooperative will help a wide range of community agencies in Waterloo Region access personal protective equipment (PPE).

The non-profit organization will oversee ordering and distribution of hard-to-find but essential supplies for independent health-care providers and organizations of all sizes to ensure a reliable supply at a reasonable price through largevolume orders.

“These groups are having a really hard time accessing PPEs,” said president Amber French, managing partner of a tech and real-estate investment firm Catalyst Capital.

“It really is a massive problem within the community.”

Those front-line groups, agencies and private businesses that didn’t know where to turn for this equipment includes doctors working in the community, shelters, group homes, charitable organizations, midwives, Indigenous outreach programs and funeral homes, which are not covered by provincial mandates like hospitals.

Along with helping them obtain quality masks, gloves, gowns, face shields, sanitizer and more, the co-operative will monitor inventory and usage to get better insight into community need.

Within a day of launching an early version of its website accessppe.ca on Monday, 80 agencies signed up — and that was in addition to the more than 200 that had already been accessing supplies gathered through an earlier community drive.

“That was a temporary solution,” French said.

And as the supplies started to dwindle, she said a sustainable model needed to be found — which is where the co-operative comes in. It’s aiming to raise $3 million to $5 million for the endeavour.

A Health Canada-approved machine was also secured at no cost to sterilize equipment for reuse to preserve more of the equipment already in the community. It can sterilize almost 20,000 N95 masks a day, and testing is underway to see if googles, face shields and gowns can also be sterilized.

Operating out of Catalyst137 in Kitchener, it’s getting widespread support including the local health integration network, Communitech, Gowlings, the University of Waterloo, Miovision and private investors.

“It’s really been a community effort,” French said.

The region granted $50,000 to help with start-up costs, approved unanimously at Tuesday’s council meeting.

“I just wanted to really commend you,” Coun. Kathryn McGarry said. “This is another incredible example of barnraising in Waterloo Region.”

Coun. Berry Vrbanovic encouraged French to also reach out to lower-tier municipalities.

“We can certainly help support the growth of this initiative,” he said.

French was thankful for regional council’s backing on Tuesday.

“That’s a huge vote of confidence,” she said. “They see the need in the community.”