The Government of Saskatchewan has purchased 18,000 face shields and four million disposable masks from a Saskatoon-based company, Benchmark Personal Protective Equipment, to continue to help keep students and school staff safe.
“Our government is pleased to support Saskatchewan-based personal protective equipment suppliers while protecting students, school staff and families,” Education Minister Dustin Duncan said. “We continue to work closely with the education sector to identify how we can best support their school-based needs.”
The face masks and shields are the third batch of school personal protective equipment (PPE) the Government of Saskatchewan has purchased to ensure that students and staff continue to have daily access to masks. Each school-based staff member will have access to a face shield. The face shields and masks are being shipped directly to Saskatchewan’s 27 school divisions and 26 independent schools starting Monday and continuing throughout the week.
This new order of PPE supplies for schools that is being shipped this week is in addition to the 8.4 million disposable masks previously purchased by the Ministry of Education and distributed directly to provincial school divisions and independent schools. This is also in addition to masks that school divisions may have purchased on their own and masks that many parents are also providing for their children.
The new order of face shields is in addition to the 28,000 face shields that were provided to schools in the fall through a Canadian company based in Ontario.
“Benchmark PPE is extremely proud to be able to manufacture these critical PPE items in Saskatoon,” Benchmark Personal Protective Equipment Business Developer Justin Stuart said. “It is of the utmost importance to keep students and staff in schools safe while in the classroom.”
A Request for Bids (RFB) is currently open on SaskTenders for 210,000 non-medical cloth face masks. The RFB closed on Jan. 14 and the reusable masks are expected to be delivered directly to school divisions and independent schools by the end of January.
These supplies are being purchased using the $10 million allocated to the Ministry of Education for the purchase of PPE for schools.
