Mask output a ‘made in Canada’ COVID-19 plan
3M Canada’s Brockville plant to make 50 million a year for feds, province
BROCKVILLE The 3M Canada tape plant here will produce 50 million N95 masks a year as part of a five-year, $70-million agreement between the company and the federal and provincial governments, officials announced Friday.
That work, the result of an expansion of the plant, will begin early next year.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau joined Premier Doug Ford, 3M Canada president Penny Wise and federal and provincial cabinet ministers at the plant to mark what they called an example of teamwork between levels of government to fight COVID -19.
“Once it’s up and running, this plant will deliver 25 million N95 masks each year to the federal government, and another 25 million to the province of Ontario,” Trudeau said. “This is part of our made-in-Canada plan to find solutions to COVID-19.”
Ford recalled the “dark days” in April, when Ontario was faced with a possible shortage of N95 masks, considered a crucial piece of personal protective equipment in the fight against the novel coronavirus.
“We were left in a terrible, terrible situation, and I can tell you, worrying about where we would get the next PPE shipment, that’s what kept me up at night,” Ford said. “We had less than a week’s supply of N95 masks.
“But we stuck together, and all of Canada stuck together, and we got through the worst of it by standing united as a country, and … I can tell you this will never, ever happen to us again. I promised the people of
Ontario that we would never, never again be left at the mercy of other countries for this critical PPE.
“Ontario is a manufacturing powerhouse. We can build anything right here on our beautiful soil.”
Ford said the agreement was an example of what different levels of government could accomplish when they work together as “Team Canada.”
“People expected us to put our differences aside, to put the politics aside and work together, and that’s exactly what we did,” he said.
Trudeau said the agreement and other similar deals help “ensure that we have the capacity to make whatever we need, here in our own communities.”
3M Canada will receive $23.33 million each from the federal and provincial governments, with the company covering the remaining share of the $70-million project to expand the tape plant.
“Today is a dream come true,” said Leeds-Grenville-Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes MPP Steve Clark, who is also provincial municipal affairs minister.
Wise said the expansion and addition of the N95 line was not expected to create a significant number of new jobs because the mask-production line would be largely automated.
In a news release later, Clark said the project was expected to create 30 jobs in Brockville, including production operators, maintenance technicians, process engineers, supervisors and quality-assurance professionals. 3M currently employs 425 people at its Brockville sites.
The target is to be producing N95 respirators by next March at the latest, Wise said. rzajac@postmedia.com
Ontario is a manufacturing powerhouse. We can build anything right here on our ... soil.