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The owner of a Surrey company that has pivoted to produce personal protective equipment said he would like to see health authorities continue to buy local PPE when the COVID-19 pandemic ends to ensure a supply in future.

In recent weeks, FireTech Manufacturing has shifted about half of its production to make up to 10,000 face shields per week, said owner and president Dan London: “We have standing orders from the local health authorities, which has been great. We’ve been able to hire some new people.”

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In the pre-COVID era, there was no way London could compete with PPE suppliers from China.

“They can sell them to the hospitals at a price that’s below my cost to make them because labour is so much cheaper in China. It’s far more expensive here because we pay a good wage,” he said.

London would like to see B.C. maintain some capacity to produce PPE, which would make it easier to ramp up local production in case of a future pandemic.