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Medications distributed across Western Canada make a stop in Edmonton on their way through the supply chain at a massive new warehouse operated by McKesson Canada.
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The health-care firm celebrated the opening of the facility last month, but it’s been about a year since it was completed — COVID-19 delayed the official celebration.
The 316,000-square-foot facility in northwest Edmonton is where many prescription and over-the-counter medications arrive from manufacturers, and then are sent along to pharmacies and hospitals.
McKesson had a presence in Edmonton before, but the new distribution centre is one of the largest operating in the country. It serves Alberta, parts of Saskatchewan and northern B.C., as well as cities in the Northwest Territories and the Yukon.
On the warehouse floor, conveyor belts whir as employees pack orders from pharmacies and stores. About 150 employees work here full-time, but the night shift is when it’s busiest, as people fulfil orders from pharmacies so medications are ready for shipping the next morning.
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There’s also new automation on the floor. In many areas, workers stand in one place, and bins and the goods for the order arrive right in front of them, letting them pack without having to walk back and forth to find what they need.
Over the past year and a half, COVID-19 vaccines have also arrived here before being sent out to pharmacies so that Albertans could be immunized. On the floor of the distribution facility, there’s a massive freezer — key for Pfizer and Moderna shots, since they must be kept ultra-cold.
McKesson Canada CEO Rebecca McKillican said more than six million COVID-19 vaccines have been shipped out through the facility.
Premier Jason Kenney attended the recent ceremonial ribbon-cutting along with Labour and Immigration Minister Kaycee Madu.
“One thing we learned through COVID is that we need to onshore more vaccine and pharmaceutical production,” he said, adding facilities like this help support the development of a “more secure” pharmaceutical network locally.
According to McKillican, McKesson Canada spent about $175 million to build the new centre.
“It’s definitely the biggest in the west, and one of our marquee facilities in terms of what we’re able to do, not just from a volume perspective, but the technology investments that we have here,” she said.
