First N95 mask shipment rolls off the line at 3M’s Brockville plant

N95 respirators have started rolling off the production line at 3M’s Brockville, Ont. plant.

About 700,000 N95 respirators are being shipped from the plant this week, with the first wave of this vital PPE set to arrive at health care, education and other public-sector institutions.

The first shipment comes eight months after the governments of Canada and Ontario reached a five-year agreement with 3M last August for the provision of 55 million respirators annually to meet demand for frontline healthcare workers in Ontario and across Canada.

Through this partnership, 3M expanded its Brockville manufacturing facility to produce the made-in-Ontario N95 respirators. Each level of government invested $23.33 million to support 3M’s capital investment of $70 million.

The Brockville facility will produce enough respirators to meet private sector, provincial and North American market demand throughout the pandemic and beyond. The project created 30 jobs in Brockville, including production operators, maintenance technicians, process engineers, supervisors and quality assurance professionals.