Ontario businesses that pivoted during COVID-19 to produce PPE still going strong

After nearly two years, the pandemic the continues but a shortage of PPE is long over. David Zura visits two plants that have transformed their operation.

By David Zura and Nick Westoll

In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, there were calls and government incentives for Ontario’s businesses to retool in order to produce personal protective equipment due to shortages as a result of intense global demand.

But nearly two years later as the province sits in the fifth wave, various operators are still going strong and producing sought-after items like masks and gowns for hospitals, long-term care homes and various other congregate settings.

“It’s extremely important that Canada has manufacturing here in the country to produce PPE,” Rob Schwery, the general manager of Eclipse Innovations in Cambridge, told CityNews.

“There is no reason anymore to be going offshore and buying anything we’re wearing on our faces right now.”

In July 2020, the company received $1.4 million from the Ontario Together Fund — the provincial government’s initiative to bolster domestic PPE supplies. The company, which was known for manufacturing car parts, nuclear equipment and heavy machinery, installed dedicated assembly lines for respirators and masks where the automation machine shop once ran strong.

“There was a decision to say, ‘Let’s take all of the machines out of here, relocate that in another facility, let’s repurpose this facility’ all within about six months to stand up that manufacturing,” Schwery said, calling the process “organized chaos.”


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“We had multiple teams, multiple things that had to happen in parallel. We had to get our certification, we had to bring in equipment, we had to bedbug the equipment, we had to source raw materials.

“Normally when you’re doing all of this, you’re kind of doing it in a staged approach. We had to do that all on top of each other.”

At Harbour Technologies, the company makes masks at its Windsor plant and at its Chatham plant level-three isolation gowns are churned out up to 24 hours a day with the assistance of ultrasonics. A new and completed gown can be put together by a robot in around 90 seconds.

David Glover, the co-owner of the company, said they were able to create jobs as a result of the retooling.

“Not only jobs for operators, packers, folders but also jobs for engineering to actually develop the cells you see here (as well as) jobs for robot programming and techs,” he said.

Click here to see the full list of Ontario’s PPE providers recognized by the Ontario government

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