The Rise and Fall of Canada’s Domestic PPE Market

George Irwin, owner of Trebor RX Corp., which manufactured PPE masks for the COVID-19 pandemic, poses for a photograph outside what was his business before it went into receivership in Collingwood, Ont., on March 15, 2023. The Canadian Press/Nathan Denette

Most Canadian businesses that answered federal and provincial calls during the pandemic to build up a domestic sector for personal protective equipment have collapsed.

The association that represents Canadian PPE companies says 90 per cent of those businesses have been forced to close or pivot to other industries because the federal government and Ontario have given contracts to a massive American company and a Quebec operation.