Ontario injection molder among three firms to get provincial funding for mask and respirator production

Injection molder Swenco Ltd. is one of three Ontario manufacturers receiving a combined total of more than $5 million through the provincial government’s Ontario Together Fund to help them create jobs by designing and producing respirators and surgical masks for frontline and healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Waterloo, Ont.-based Swenco is receiving $2 million to help the company establish a new production facility to make ASTM level 1, 2 and 3 surgical masks. It anticipates creating 24 new jobs with the project.

“Swenco Limited has been in business in Ontario for over 58 years. Like many Canadians and Canadian businesses, we were hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic,” Swenco president Paul Sweeny said in a press release. “We decided that we needed to come forward and be a part of the solution. With the incredible support from the Ontario Together Fund, we were able to open a state-of-the-art mask production facility in Waterloo and with this expansion we hope to continue supporting our community for years to come.”

Ontario is also investing more than $1.8 million in Kitchener-based mask supplier O2 Canada to design double-filtered, soft-sealed and reusable respirators that will help healthcare and frontline workers fight COVID-19 by filtering particulates, bacteria and viruses. The project will create 50 new jobs at O2 Canada and 25 at Barrie-based Jomi Technical Services, who partnered with O2 to manufacture the respirator.

And the province is also investing $1,475,000 in Concord-based Ronco to help the company establish the production capacity to manufacture surgical masks and respirators at its Ontario plant, replacing production that is currently happening in China. The company will establish three surgical mask production lines to make more than three million masks monthly and will add one N95 respirator production line to make up to 260,000 respirators monthly.

“As our fight against COVID-19 continues, we need Ontario’s top-notch entrepreneurs and innovators to continue to work with us and help mobilize our manufacturing and innovation might,” said Vic Fedeli, Minister of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade. “That’s why we are supporting companies like O2 Canada, Ronco and Swenco to provide a made-in-Ontario solution to reduce our dependence on foreign supply chains, strengthen our domestic capacity and be better prepared for the future.”