VANCOUVER -- Inside a Port Coquitlam dance studio, rows of workers are now assembling one of the urgently needed pieces of personal protective equipment for health care workers during the pandemic. 

They’re putting together plastic face shields that are now being created by the thousands at a Langley manufacturer, Packright. The company’s president, Colin Chiu, told CTV News Vancouver they normally make packaging for the produce and food industry, such as clamshells for tomatoes and sandwich containers. That side of their business is still brisk, but Chiu said this was something they wanted to do as well.

“My family comes from health care. Both my dad and my mom were doctors,” Chiu said. “They’re putting their lives at risk, and the health of their families at risk.”

Chiu said he also has an uncle who is currently working as an anesthesiologist.

“He helped give us feedback on the design,” Chiu said. “When I talked to him, there was a real sense of urgency to him, and that really pulled at me.”

As of Wednesday afternoon, Chiu said the company had already shipped over 5,200 shields. They are also designed to ship flat, and can fit 60 to a box. At their Langley facility, Chiu said they were able to adapt equipment to make one plastic shield every three to four seconds. The dance studio is donating its space to help with the assembly.

“Our facility in Langley was just too tight. We couldn’t create that social distance for the amount of people we needed. So that was why we moved here,” Chiu said. “I reached out to my daughter’s soccer team and asked for help, and amazingly enough, a ton of people stepped up.”

While getting the shields to health-care workers is the first priority, Chiu said they are also interested in supplying other industries where physical distance may be hard to observe, such as in greenhouses that grow produce. 

“They’re another sector that’s really hurting because they can’t slow down this production because then it causes panic because the food chain is disrupted,” Chiu said. 

Chiu said Packright has formally applied to the federal government to help out — one of over 5,000 companies to respond to Ottawa’s call for assistance since the call went out on March 20, according to Innovation Canada. However, the company is still waiting on a Health Canada-issued licence. 

“We understand they probably got flooded with thousands and thousands of applications,” Chiu said. 

CTV has been told the federal government is working to process those applications more quickly, but there is no set time for formal approvals. Interested businesses are able to apply online.

According to an emailed statement from Innovation Canada media relations manager Genevieve Sicard, “Once these responses are received, we engage directly with respondents to assess how they can support the urgent needs of Canadians and front line workers.”

In the meantime, Chiu is forging ahead.

“For us, it’s really important to get these to people that need them first,” Chiu said. “We need to press forward...and the times will catch up to us.”