3M Canada’s Brockville Plant Helps The Fight Against Covid-19
In the first week of April 2021, 3M Canada achieved something incredible. After months of planning, around the clock shifts, and a massive construction project to retool their production line, 3M’s Brockville, Ontario plant shipped out their first order of N95 respirator masks. It took only 8 months to go from manufacturing zero N95 masks to shipping out their first order of 700,000.
We don’t have to tell you how this changed—and potentially saved—the lives of thousands of people.
N95 respirators are not your typical disposable face masks, because 3M is not your typical company. They call themselves a “science company,” and they certainly deserve the title. 3M manufactures over 55,000 products globally, and each and every one was developed on one of their 46 technology platforms or laboratories.
Sanitation Science is the Future
The 3M™ N95 Particulate Healthcare Respirator provides respiratory protection against airborne biological particles, and they are fluid-resistant to splash and spatter of infectious substances such as saliva. As more and more research was published in 2020 about the rate of airborne and contact transmission of Covid-19, it became imperative for healthcare workers to secure Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) created by a company who bases their productive output on scientific principles.
This first order of 700,000 N95 masks was one small step towards the 55 million annually that the plant committed to making. This output is part of a global strategy for the company. By the end of 2020, 3M produced 2 billion N95 respirators worldwide, which was triple their 2019 production: the company’s goal for 2021 is to produce 2.5 billion.
3M Canada could not have accomplished this feat without partnering with various levels of government. The Ministry of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade, the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing, Ontario’s Ministry of Government and Consumer Services, Canada’s Ministry of Innovation, Science and Industry, and Canada’s Ministry of Public Services and Procurement joined forces to make this happen. Each level of government invested $23.33 million to support 3M’s capital investment of $70 million. The agreement was reached in August 2020. Construction at the plant began in September, and was completed by May, 2021.
The project created 30 new jobs for “3Mers” (as the company calls their employees) in Brockville, including production operators, maintenance technicians, process engineers, supervisors and quality assurance professionals.
The fact that N95 masks are now made in Canada is not a minor footnote in our country’s fight against Covid-19. Waiting for shipments from other nations has become a life-or-death situation, especially for frontline workers, as we’ve seen with vaccine supply.
“By securing domestically-manufactured products, Canada increases its self-sufficiency and reduces the risk of supply chain interruptions, which have been prevalent during the global pandemic,” says Penny Wise, President of 3M Canada.
However, regional vs. out-of-country production is not the only factor affecting supply of PPE in Canada: price gouging and outright fraud have also been an issue. As Wise reported in April 2020, 3M filed a legal action in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice. The defendants falsely affiliated themselves with 3M and sold N95 respirators for $17.00 each, which is more than five times the appropriate retail price. Still to this day, 3M is working with online retailers and tech giants such as Google, Amazon, and Facebook to identify and remove counterfeiters from their sites and report them to law enforcement authorities.
The 3M legal team has investigated more than 9,900 reports globally of suspected fraud, counterfeiting, and price gouging which has led to the removal of tens of thousands of illicit listings. The company has committed to donating any damages recovered from legal proceedings to COVID-19-related non-profit organizations.
As Wise asserts, “To fight this pandemic, we must have a united front and we encourage the entire distribution ecosystem to follow suit.”
It’s an essential and important mission, and one that the SLCEDC looks forward to helping 3M achieve, both throughout the pandemic and beyond.
Learn more about 3M here.