Ontario Construction News staff writer
Guide Woodworking is investing nearly $300,000 in a new machining centre at its Mississauga location, with $75,000 from the provincial government.
The new facility will be used to design and produce about 500 acrylic protective barriers each month for workplaces, including reception areas and service counters.
“Through the Ontario Together Fund, our government is making targeted investments in domestic manufacturers with the ideas and solutions to help us through this pandemic,” said Vic Fedeli, minister of economic development, job creation and trade.
“Guide Woodworking and their new capacity to make acrylic protective barriers is another example of Ontario innovation at its very best. Ontario manufacturers continue to enhance our resilience to any challenge while strengthening our economy.”
Ontario has increased the renewed Ontario Together Fund by $50 million in 2021–22 to support local innovators and businesses improving Ontario’s domestic supply chain capacity, promoting the MedTech ecosystem and build up the manufacturing sector.
To qualify for funding, projects must support homegrown manufacturing and innovation to combat COVID-19 and provide goods “critical to the health, safety, and security of Ontarians beyond the pandemic”.
Guide Woodworking is a family-owned and operated manufacturing business that specializes in supplying, manufacturing and installing architectural millwork solutions such as security desks, customer service areas and transaction counters.
“As a small to medium size manufacturer in Ontario, it is vital that we pursue cutting-edge technology and effective processes through investment in our production development. The COVID-19 pandemic applied a very difficult strain on our business, and we are grateful for the Government of Ontario’s initiative regarding the Ontario Together Fund with respect to helping businesses like ours rise to the occasion,” said Bass Jubran, operations manager at Guide Woodworking.
“By partnering with them through this program, we were able to upgrade our establishment to more efficiently deliver the products that are needed today, namely increasing our ability and capacity to manufacture the types of components and protective barriers that people rely on.”
Guide Woodworking has been operating in Ontario since 1989.