GM Canada’s Oshawa Operations welcomed the Honourable Navdeep Bains, Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry and the Honourable Anita Anand, Minister of Public Services and Procurement to help celebrate the one-millionth mask produced out of the Canadian Mask Making (CMM) room for the Government of Canada.

This is the first millionth milestone in the journey to 10 million masks.

“Thank you to our government for their leadership and partnership as we work towards producing 10 million masks,” said Scott Bell, GM Canada President and Managing Director. “Today marks a significant milestone and we’re proud to do our part to help keep Canadians safer.”

Canadian Ministers attend

The Honourable Navdeep Bains, Minister of Industry, Science and Innovation said, “Congratulations to GM Canada on the production of one million masks.

GM Canada is one of the Canadian companies that have mobilized to develop made-in-Canada solutions to help our health care system.

On behalf of the Government of Canada, I would like to thank GM Canada for joining the collective effort to fight COVID-19.”

GM Canada’s production of one million face coverings is poised to make an important contribution to protecting the health and safety of Canadians.

— The Honourable Anita Anand, Minister, Public Services and Procurement

“GM Canada is among the many Canadian companies that are supplying domestically produced personal protective equipment to support our response to COVID-19 while sustaining and creating jobs right across the country. Thank you for putting your hand up to support Canada’s pandemic response,” added Anand.

Unifor proud to partner

“Unifor members are highly skilled and always ready to step up and help manufacture whatever supplies our country needs to battle COVID-19,” said Jerry Dias, Unifor National President.

“We are proud to partner with GM and Health Canada in this project and many others in the future.”

GM Canada received its Medical Device Establishment License on April 22, and in just over three weeks with support from GM’s global supply chain, the company sourced materials, built a ‘Canadian Mask Making (CMM)’ clean room with enhanced safety protocols,  and installed the required equipment.

They also recalled and trained 60 workers for two shifts of production in Oshawa in partnership with Unifor. The official start of production began on May 26, 2020.