For the second time in less than a week, Ontario Premier Doug Ford popped up at businesses in Waterloo Region on Friday as part of a provincial tour to thank people for their efforts during the coronavirus pandemic.
Ford began the visits with a tour of the Inksmith facility in Waterloo. The Kitchener-based company has quickly expanded after moving into the personal protective equipment market in March.
After lunch, Ford stopped in at Medical Innovation Xchange in Kitchener where he gave praise to the innovation displayed by the burgeoning tech sector in the area.
“The innovation that we see in Kitchener-Waterloo is incredible,” he said.
“When we needed it most, these people responded. Hundreds of businesses and entrepreneurs worked quickly to develop blueprints, create new designs and molds, and even invent new machinery to meet the challenges we faced with COVID-19.”
From there, Ford moved on to the Waterloo Brewing Company to pour the first indoor pint at the taphouse as Waterloo Region enters Stage 3 of the province’s plan for recovery from the coronavirus pandemic.
His last stop was to be at the Frito-Lay facility in Cambridge.
On Tuesday, Ford toured Eclipse Automation and the Challenger facility in Cambridge and Shaver Industries in Kitchener.
The premier’s visits kicked off a provincewide tour that will see him visit communities across the province to meet with those who he said “stepped up over the past few months.”