The federal government is investing as much as $29 million in a company building a factory in Montreal to make the specialized fabric needed to produce respirators and surgical masks.
The money will go toward a $38.8-million project by Meltech Innovation Canada Inc., a division of Medicom Group Inc., that includes the factory as well as a research and development lab and testing facility.
The factory will make meltblown polypropylene which is used in the middle filter layer for respirators and surgical masks.
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The government says the new factory will fill a domestic manufacturing gap and help Canada be more self-sufficient when it comes to the production of personal protective equipment.
The factory is expected to supply enough fabric to produce over half a billion masks per year.
Medicom, a privately owned Canadian company based in Montreal, has operations in over 50 countries.