Ontario Premier Doug Ford said facilities such as the Medline Canada Guelph Distribution Centre are critical to ensure Ontario’s economy is not reliant on anybody else while attending a ceremonious ribbon-cutting ceremony on Friday.
“It’s absolutely critical. I think we all saw what happened when President Trump cut us off from the N95 masks, and I said never again, even our closest ally and friend cut us off, never again will that happen under our watch,” said Ford. "Ontario is an economic powerhouse, we can manufacture anything and we learned a lot of good lessons, people have stepped up.”
Ford credited mayor Cam Guthrie with making sure permits were acquired quickly, barriers were knocked down and said this is the way we need to move forward.
"When companies come here and they don't see the permits right away they're going somewhere else. They're going to Ohio, Michigan, we can't afford that. We want people to stay here and create the conditions and the environment for the companies to thrive and prosper and grow," said Ford.
Ford was joined by Ernie Philip, president of Medline Canada and Guthrie on Friday to tour the Medline Canada facility and cut a ceremonious ribbon for the grand opening of the facility which held a soft opening in the fall of 2020.
The 600,000 sq ft. distribution centre, located in the south end of Guelph, provides 140 jobs and is slated to expand with an additional 200,000 sq feet in the near future.
John Quinn, head of corporate communications at Medline Canada said the facility has the capacity for 50,000 stock-keeping units (SKU), ranging from anything from stents up to diagnostic equipment with many products made in-house.
Medline Canada supplies medical equipment for acute care and long-term care across Canada.
Medline has one of Canada’s largest inventory capacities to ensure supplies remain available and medical equipment can be quickly dispatched to health care facilities when supplies dwindle.
“We have 25,000 products here, you know us from PPE, masks, gowns and sanitation, but when you look around you’re going to see common products,” said Phillips. “Skin and wound, many products that go into hospitals sterile procedure trays, custom hats and gowns, things that are vital to keep our hospitals and healthcare to continue moving.”
Guthrie said he is ready to break ground on the next section of the facility and bring additional jobs to Guelph with the facility expansion.
“This is a great commercial and business that is also, and I've already been talking to you about this, is giving back to the community in different ways as well and that culture is what helps everybody in our community as well,” said Guthrie.
