MONTREAL -- Montreal-based Medicom announced Wednesday that production of surgical masks has started at its new facility in Montreal.
According to the company, "production activities at the 60,000 square foot Montreal site began in July, and the first batches of surgical masks destined for the Canadian government are now ready to be shipped."
After modernizing an existing facility, the mask maker says it can now accommodate 15 new production lines and that machinery purchases and their installation will allow an overall capacity of 150 million surgical and N95-type masks per year."
According to what a statement from the federal government in May, Medicom is expected to provide the government with 20 million N95 masks and 24 million surgical masks per year - starting this summer - for the next 10 years.
At the start of the pandemic, shortages exposed weak links in Canada's supply chain, which the government is trying to address by encouraging Canadian businesses to shift production so they can manufacture everything - from necessary raw materials to finished products.
In the spring, the Medicom company obtained procurement contracts from the federal government, and it also received help to increase its production capacity.
-- this report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 12, 2020.
