Posted: Apr 24, 2021 9:00 AM MT | Last Updated: April 24
Jacob Faithful says the company can make about 80 masks a minute. (François Joly/Radio-Canada)
Jacob Faithful had to be true to his name when he started his new business.
When COVID-19 hit, he had just started a janitorial business in Frog Lake, Alta. But with the pandemic worsening, clients approached him to see if he had masks and other personal protection equipment.
A light bulb went on.
He spent the next several months calling suppliers around the world and eventually sent money to China for a machine that would allow him to make his own masks.
(CP) EDMONTON – What business school teaches in four years, Jacob Faithful says he learned in four months.
The Alberta man from the Frog Lake First Nations says he’s worked through several headaches that come with starting a business during a pandemic and will soon be opening the first mask manufacturing plant on a Canadian reserve that is fully owned and operated by Indigenous people.
“We already spent enough money to get the machine imported from China to here in Canada. And then on Feb. 22, we’re going to start making our own masks in Frog Lake,” Faithful, 42, said in an interview with The Canadian Press.
What business school teaches in four years, Jacob Faithful says he learned in four months.
The Alberta man from the Frog Lake First Nations says he s worked through several headaches that come with starting a business during a pandemic and will soon be opening the first mask manufacturing plant on a Canadian reserve that is fully owned and operated by Indigenous people. We already spent enough money to get the machine imported from China to here in Canada. And then on Feb. 22, we re going to start making our own masks in Frog Lake, Faithful, 42, said in an interview with The Canadian Press.
Winnipeg Free Press By: Fakiha Baig, The Canadian Press Posted:
EDMONTON - What business school teaches in four years, Jacob Faithful says he learned in four months.
Young Spirit Singers co-founder Jacob Faithful stands for a portrait inside the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon on Sunday, Jan. 20, 2019. Faithful, a member of the Frog Lake First Nations in Alberta, is opening the first mask manufacturing plant on a Canadian reserve that is fully owned and operated by Indigenous people. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Kayle Neis
EDMONTON - What business school teaches in four years, Jacob Faithful says he learned in four months.
We already spent enough money to get the machine imported from China to here in Canada. And then on Feb. 22, we re going to start making our own masks in Frog Lake, Faithful, 42, said in an interview with The Canadian Press. Frog Lake First Nations is run by a band government about 200 kilometres northeast of Edmonton. Born and raised on the reserve, Faithful says life hasn t been easy for him and for the community s approximately 1,800 other members. It s a hard life to live with no opportunity on the Nation. I always wanted to be a part of the solution to a lot of things that were bad with the system, he says.