MISSISSAUGA, Ontario – Guide Woodworking, a manufacturer of architectural woodwork and store fixtures, will receive $75,000 from the Ontario Together Fund, toward the purchase of a $300,000 CNC machining centre.

The new machine will allow Guide Woodworking to manufacture about 500 acrylic protective barriers each month for workplaces, including reception areas and service counters. It will be housed in the family-owned company's new production facility that it opened in spring.

“As a small to medium-sized manufacturer in Ontario, it is vital that we pursue cutting-edge technology and effective processes through investment in our production development,” said Bass Jubran, operations manager of Guide Woodworking. “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. 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.”

The $75,000 allocated to Guide Woodworking is being provided through an additional $50 million in the renewed Ontario Together Fund in 2021-22. The fund was created to support local innovators and businesses to enhance Ontario’s domestic supply chain capacity, promote Ontario’s MedTech ecosystem and bolster the province’s manufacturing sector to meet health, safety, and security challenges now and beyond the pandemic.

“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's innovation at its best. Ontario manufacturers continue to enhance our resilience to any challenge while strengthening our economy."