On Friday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Ontario Premier Doug Ford announced a deal which will allow for the mass production of N95 face masks in Canada.
“3M Canada came through for Ontario,” said Premier Ford during a press conference on Friday afternoon.
Trudeau and Ford announced the production of 100 million medical grade N95 masks per year, which will be created at the 3M Brockville plant.
Brockville Mayor Jason Baker says this announcement is a positive step forward for Brockville.
The creation of medical grade masks will not only impact the local economy, but will also benefit health-care workers on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The investment will create about 30 new jobs at the Brockville facility, in order to keep up with the demand of producing millions of N95 masks.
“It’s not every day we have three different industrial manufacturers expanding in Brockville at the same time. It’s a bit of a boom time for us and we’re thrilled to see it happening,” said Mayor Baker.
The other two expanding companies are Canarm Ltd. and the Ketchum Manufacturing facility.
Canarm is a local manufacturer of HVAC ventilation systems that have also assisted in meeting the production demand during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Premier Ford visited both facilities during his visit on Friday.
“Anything we can do to grow our jobs in this community is amazing. To have all of the PPE and N95 masks produced for Canada in our city is really exciting,” said Keeley Patterson, the president of Brockville’s chamber of commerce.
Patterson says the support for the expansion of 3M means a lot to the community. As the recent closure of Brockville’s Proctor and Gamble plant was a hard hit to the community which cut hundreds of jobs.
This agreement will allow 3M to assist in the fight against the COVID-19 virus and what was a critical shortage of N95 masks in Canada earlier this year.
Comments