Mint staff 'pumped' to produce sanitizer for Manitoba health-care system facing COVID-19

The Royal Canadian Mint is known for making loonies and toonies at its Winnipeg facility, so you might expect a switch to manufacturing hand sanitizer would pose some big production challenges.

Not so.

"Our team is super engaged, super pumped to be doing this," said Brad Everton, senior manager of applied research with the mint.

Turns out some of the main ingredients inthe World Health Organization's sanitizer recipe include things like isopropyl alcohol and other chemicals already in use by the mint in the coin-making process.

The mint ordered a few other things and got production underway Sunday in Winnipeg. The sanitizer is headed to the provincial government, which will distribute it to the health-care system.

The move comes after the province issued a call earlier this month for local businesses to make and supply needed medical supplies to help in the fight against coronavirus. The mint responded.

"Our leadership team challenged us, 'What can we do to help out?'" said Everton.

"And we looked at the government website on what the government's asking for, and hand sanitizers stood out [as] 'Yeah, that's something we can do.'"

WATCH | The money-making mint is adding sanitizer to its production line:

Mint staff 'pumped' to produce sanitizer

4 years ago

Duration 1:40

The Royal Canadian Mint is expected to ship its first batch of liquid hand sanitizer to the Manitoba government this week, which will distribute it to the health-care system.

The Winnipeg-based mint isn't the only organization pitching in. The Ottawa mint has also been making sanitizer, along with 3D-printed personal protective equipment.

Local distilleries and breweries in Winnipeg have also shifted to making liquid hand sanitizer without changing much of what they do.

Lyne Morissette owns Little Tree Hugger Soap in Winnipeg, which makes bath and body products, creams, lotions and sanitizers.

The company sold a lot of products to hotels before the pandemic, but with all the travel restrictions and physical distancing in place, that client pool dried up, said Morissette.

She has mixed emotions about bigger entities producing sanitizer because she fears it could potentially increase competition at a moment when times are already tough for her business. The costs for her ingredients are already two to three times higher than usual right now due to a rise in demand, said Morissette.

"I'm glad that people are getting sanitizer out because ultimately we want to flatten the curve," she said.

"The breweries have made it very difficult for small businesses like myself to stay alive because they can supply the product cheaper than what I can even make it at, so I can't compete with that industry. And then now with the mint opening and now them supplying, it's just compounding the problem."

Morissette is donating 300 bottles of sanitizer to the North End Women's Shelter.

Some Winnipeg distilleries have donated sanitizer to local non-profits as well.

The mint is a Crown corporation that is donating its sanitizer to the provincial health-care system as well: it's a one-time charitable donation to the province,and the mint has beenlicensed by Health Canada to produce it.The sanitizer islimited run of up to 1,000 litresand it won't be available to the consumer market, said a mint spokesperson.

There is no current shortage of sanitizer in the health-care system, said a spokesperson with Manitoba Shared Health.

Although it's a new venture for the mint, production hasn't been hampered by learning curves or supply chain hiccups, said Everton. One of the bigger challenges has been acquiring containers to put the stuff in.

"The bigger question of what do we put it in, and how do we ship it, and who do we ship it tothe logistics and the planning and the licences was something out of the ordinary."

The effort is all about supporting the front-line health-care workers, staff in personal care homes and hospitals, said Everton.

"If there's something that needs to be done in the community we generally try to help out," said Everton.

"Our team is super engaged and happy to help out."

The first 400-litre batch of sanitizer from the mint is expected to ship out to the Manitoba government this week.