Canadian Plastics  May 2, 2022  

The first-in-Canada manufacturing facility will create hundreds of jobs and secure reliable domestic supply of critical PPE.

The Ontario government has announced plans to build a120,000-square-foot facility in London, Ont., to create a source of medical grade nitrile gloves.

Said to be the first manufacturing facility of nitrile gloves outside of Asia, the plant will provide a secure source of PPE for stockpile and be a supplier to other Canadian provinces and the North American market.

Manikheir Canada Inc. will provide at least 500 million medical grade nitrile gloves annually for up to 10 years.

The facility is expected to employ over 145 people for on-site work, it will create about 300 indirect jobs in the region and up to 1,000 temporary jobs during the construction and machinery set up phase.

“Building this nitrile glove manufacturing facility in London means we will be ready to respond to future emergencies without having to rely on uncertain foreign supply,” Ross Romano, Minister of Government and Consumer Services, said in an April 26 news release. “On top of protecting the safety of Ontarians, we’re growing our economy by supporting domestic businesses and creating hundreds of good manufacturing jobs for our workers.”

It is expected that the first Ontario-made medical grade nitrile glove will be available by spring of 2024.

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