BARRIE, ONT. -- Premier Doug Ford spent time in Simcoe County on Thursday with stops in Oro-Medonte, Orillia and Barrie.
The premier toured businesses that retooled their operations to help in the fight against COVID-19.
At his first stop, Ford took part in a ground-breaking ceremony for the new Automotive Innovation Park at Oro Station.
"This is such an important project, and I just love innovators," Ford said, adding that Ontario is self-sufficient when it comes to personal protective equipment.
The new automotive park is expected to bring 700 full-time jobs to the region.
"We have the ingenuity. We have the technology and the know-how, and it's amazing how everyone switched over their lanes," he said.
Ford saw that ingenuity touring Molded Precision Components (MPC) in Shanty Bay. The company flipped production from automated manufacturing to create more than 10 million face shields for front-line workers.
"We've created 130 jobs through this process as well, and it's enabling us to support all Canada and beyond," said company president David Yeaman.
Most of the jobs were filled by young people who were without employment for the summer.
MPC has had so much success since shifting production to face shields that it plans to continue manufacturing medical equipment.
"The automotive is coming back now," said Yeaman. "We're only down about 10 per cent, so about 90 per cent is back. We'll be continuing with that, but we're doing a huge growth as far as medical is concerned."
Ford capped his day in Barrie at JOMI Technical Services, an engineering company that retooled its facility to produce respiratory filters to fit inside face masks.
These local companies played a vital role in the province's Ontario-made program.
Ford said that while investment from outside the country has slowed, he's not worried, adding the government needs to get out of the way.
"We've gotta make sure that we speed up the process and cut out all this red tape and regulations and all the bureaucracy."
