WorkinSimcoeCounty.ca
County of Simcoe and area partners launch new job portal
The County of Simcoe and area partners including member municipalities, the cities of Barrie and Orillia and the Simcoe Muskoka Workforce Development Board are launching a new interactive job portal. The Work in Simcoe County site includes local resources and job opportunities, as well as vital information to empower and inspire residents. Click on Press Release for more information.
Trillium Manufacturing Network
Is collaboration the way forward for Ontario manufacturing?
ShopHERE Program
County support to help local businesses go digital expands
Press Release link
The ShopHERE program compliments the County's investment in Digital Service Squads which provides up to 10 hours of free one-on-one coaching to businesses from a team of highly trained professionals. The investment in Digital Service
Squads was based on staff recommendations from the analysis of the County's Business Impact Surveys completed by local businesses in relation to urgent COVID-19 needs.
The ShopHERE program is now available to small businesses across the County of Simcoe. Interested parties can apply for the program by visiting www.digitalmainstreet.ca/shophere for an opportunity to have their online store built at no-cost.
For more information about Digital Service Squads, please visit https://edo.simcoe.ca/Pages/COVID-19-Government-Supports.aspx.
The Digital Service Squad program
County provides funding to help small and medium-sized businesses go digital
Press Release link
The County of Simcoe is providing funding toward a unique program to help local small and medium-sized businesses go digital. Eligible businesses will receive up to 10 hours of free one-on-one coaching from Digital Service Squads and other digital supports through Digital Main Street and Beyond. For more information, including full eligibility criteria, visit
https://edo.simcoe.ca/Pages/COVID-19-Government-Supports.aspx
COVID-19 Business Impact Survey Results
Thank you to all the businesses that participated in the Covid-19 Business Impact Survey
Phase I and Phase II. Your input is valuable to us and we appreciate your time.
PHASE I SURVEY RESULTS
PHASE II SURVEY RESULTS
Shop Local and Experience Simcoe County from Home
Tourism Simcoe County and the County's Economic Development Office, in conjunction with member municipalities and area partners, have launched a new online directory to highlight local businesses in Simcoe County that are continuing to safely provide services and goods such as food, and other daily essentials, local retailers and artisans across the region are offering call-in, online purchasing options, delivery, take-out and curbside pick-up. For a list of participating businesses visit experience.simcoe.ca, like @TourismSimcoeCounty on Facebook, follow @SimcoeCountyEDO on Twitter and @experiencesimcoecounty on Instagram.
Manufacturers switching gears to make medical supplies
Local Simcoe County businesses are answering the call and switching gears to make medical supplies amid the COVID-19 pandemic. This virus has spread around the globe and strained national supplies of hand sanitizer, face masks, and more. Companies are retooling to make urgently needed medical supplies and even though it may take time and a monumental effort to pivot their lines; these companies are stepping up for their communities and helping in anyway they can.
The County would like to take this opportunity to recognize these businesses and say thank you for switching up their production for the common good.
Below are the names of some outstanding local businesses that prove we are stronger when we work together.
COLLINGWOOD
Heretic Spirits is a Collingwood based company that has gotten into the “spirit" and switching over their whiskey stills to produce hand sanitizer. They hope to have the first batch available by the end of this week.
hereticspirits.com
Collingwood Businesses' ingenious Covid adaptations
Molded Precision Components (MPC) is a precision injection moulding facility located in Oro-Medonte, offering
industry a full-service engineering, product development and volume manufacturing capability. With a flexible manufacturing approach, they continue to serve their existing automotive partners, having also redeployed key resources to focus on medical-driven needs, including a collaboration for supply of 25 million personal protective face shields. They were recently featured on the National for their impressive innovation, all 60 employees remaining actively employed and with additional hiring needs for 15 more employees. www.mpccomponents.com Congratulations MPC on this fantastic accomplishment of one million face shields!
Napoleon is a Simcoe County company with two locations in Oro-Medonte and Barrie with over 1,200,000+ square feet of manufacturing space. Workers have stop making grills and volunteer to make essential medical equipment amidst COVID-19. Their team is primarily focused on assembling and packaging face shields. https://napoleonhomecomfort.ca/
NEW TECUMSETH
Beatties Distillers is a company run by a 5th generation Canadian farming family in Alliston. They produce some of the finest potato vodka. However, during these challenging times they have switch caps and begun to produce hand sanitizer. www.beattiesdistillers.com
Baxter Canada located in Alliston has also altered production by transitioning from a 5-day work week to a 24/7 production schedule for the next 4-6 weeks. Baxter is the only large scale manufacturing plant producing life-sustaining intravenous and dialysis
solutions in Canada. Over the coming weeks, the company's over 600 dedicated colleagues will set their sights on increasing production of IV bags used in ICU departments across the country as they treat COVID-19 patients. www.baxter.ca
PENETANGUISHENE
Industrial Filter Manufacturing (IFM) in Penetanguishene is a company that makes specialty and custom liquid filtration bags and has expanded its production to include masks. They are doing their part to help fill the need for more medical supplies amid the COVID-19 pandemic. IFM has also made staffing adjustments in order to accommodate physical-distancing protocols and keep their staff safe. 
www.liquidfiltration.com/
MIDLAND
SCHOTT Gemtron Canada Corp. is supporting our local community in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. SCHOTT is a company that specializes in the processing of flat glass for the home appliance industry. For the month of April and May, the company is offering municipalities and local businesses in North Simcoe up to 10 pieces per entity of free tempered glass (glass only, installation excluded) to assist with social distancing.
North Simcoe Tool has shifted operations during the pandemic to answer the call for PPE. They were approached by Industrial Filter in Penetanguishene to produce nose clips for their PPE Face Masks. These masks are used by front line personnel in their daily routines to protect against the spread of COVID-19. They answered this call by retooling an old punch press and fitting it with a die to punch out Aluminum nose clips. They are currently manufacturing approximately 1,200 nose clips per day. northsimcoetool.ca
INNISFIL
Canadian Yacht Tops (CYT) is a Lefroy business that has reconfigured it operations to produce face shields using the materials in making boat tops. CYT has a staff of six full time and two part time employees with approximately 2,000 to 2,500 square feet of space to work within. The hope is to roll out between 250 to 500 face shields per day.
ADJALA -TOSORONTIO
Interspec Systems
in Adjala Tosorontio is getting ready to deliver bed locators to an Ottawa area hospital. Interspec Systems provides hospitals with a complete range of healthcare headwalls and medical service unit solutions on the market. These units keep essentials at doctors finger tips in hospital rooms.
If you know of a company or are a Simcoe County business helping others in need, we want to hear from you. Contact the County of Simcoe Economic Department Office with your story, edo@simcoe.ca The County of Simcoe EDO is here for your business during this challenging time. We are all in this together.
Media Links - Local Businesses Good News Stories
Bradford West Gillimbury
Penetanguishene
Midland
New Tecumseth
Severn Township
Barrie
COVID-19 Business Resources
