Canada Goose to produce 100,000 gowns for Manitoba health-care workers

Canada Goose says it is ramping up its production of personal protective equipment to help health-care workers in the COVID-19 pandemic, with plans to produce at least 60,000 hospital gowns per week.

The move steps up its commitment fromMarch 25, when the company announcedit would use its manufacturing facilities in Winnipeg and Toronto to make scrubs and gowns, with an initial goal of producing 10,000 units.

The company says it will do the work at cost,producing60,000 L2 gowns per week, up to 1.5 million in total, as part of a contract with the federal government.

In Manitoba alone, Canada Goose will produce 100,000 gowns for Shared Health, a news release says.

The company will produce the equipmentat its eight manufacturing facilities, in Winnipeg, the Greater Toronto Area, Montrealand Boisbriand, Que., employing up to 900 people at a time.

The news comes a day after Manitoba Shared Health chief nursing officer Lanette Siragusasaid the province is still waiting for a massive order of equipment.

During a daily briefing on the COVID-19 situation in Manitoba, she said the province's current supplies of N95masks, gloves and gowns could be used up in the next week or two, but that they are expecting more to arrive soon.