Honourable senators, I rise today as we enter the start of a new session to stress the importance of supporting local vendors and artisans as we continue to face the COVID-19 pandemic.

In particular, I would like to take this opportunity to highlight OCanadaMasks and their creator Ann-May Cheng, president of TAMA Designs Inc. from Toronto. For over 26 years, Ms. Cheng has been operating an apparel manufacturing business in Toronto. TAMA was a manufacturer of high-end ladies’ sportswear until the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.

As I’m sure you will all remember, retail operations were shut down soon after the pandemic began. It quickly became apparent that hospitals were in desperate need of non-medical-grade masks for patient and visitor use, so Ann-May mobilized some of her workers to make reusable, fabric face masks for donation to local hospitals.

I am pleased to share that they have since donated over 2,000 masks with more donations to be made. Toronto General Hospital, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, Humber River Hospital, SickKids Hospital, and Lakeridge Health’s Ajax Pickering Hospital are just some of the hospitals that have benefited from Ann-May’s donations.

Ann-May also found that friends, family members and colleagues were interested in purchasing locally-produced, well-made reusable masks for personal use, and so the “OCanada” online shop began.

This summer I purchased the signature OCanada masks for my Canadian Senators Group colleagues. These Canada flag masks, which I and many of my CSG colleagues are wearing today, serve as an important reminder that we continue to support each other to overcome this pandemic, as we are all in this together.

I would like to thank Ann-May and her team for creating these masks and supporting medical health care workers across the province. Your work, alongside the work of many other local mask makers across Canada, has been critical throughout the pandemic.

Honourable colleagues, if you are looking to purchase reusable fabric masks, I urge you to support local vendors. While last week was Small Business Week, we should continue to buy local and support small businesses each and every week. Our support can help people in your community keep their small businesses afloat, especially during these challenging times. It also helps boost our local economies, meaning that more small and family-run businesses will survive and thrive. Thank you, meegwetch.