Olymel plant outside of Red Deer - credit Sheldon Spackman

By Dori Modney - files from Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada

Feds invest $7.8 million for worker safety at prairie meat plants

Mar 2, 2021 | 2:18 PM

WINNIPEG, MAN. — Producers affected by the temporary closure of Olymel Pork Plant near Red Deer, will be getting some help from the federal government.

The plant was closed, due to a COVID outbreak, more than two weeks ago, effectively creating major issues for pork farmers. The closure of one of the largest hog slaughter facilities in the country, initially affected 343 employees, and is now responsible for three deaths.

Darcy Fitzgerald, executive director of Alberta Pork, says producers in the province have been shipping about 48,000 hogs per week to Olymel.

As well, Mark Ferguson, manager of SaskPork, says 800,000 Saskatchewan market hogs are shipped to the Olymel plant each year.

“Just under half of our market hogs go to that facility. So the impact of a stoppage of processing will be felt for the coming weeks if not months,” he said.

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Most farms have a regular schedule for shipping hogs to processing plants, according to Ferguson.

“An interruption to this schedule and the inability to ship hogs is a serious situation,” he said. “Within a week or two, at the most, space inside the barns will become an issue.”

Olymel is moving its own pigs that would normally be slaughtered at the plant to its operations in the United States to free up capacity for independent producers in Canada.

The company estimates there’s a backlog of 80,000 to 90,000 animals that should be cleared within four to five weeks, once the plant reopens.

On Tuesday, (Mar 2), Special Representative for the Prairies, the Honourable Jim Carr, on behalf of Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food, the Honourable Marie-Claude Bibeau, announced support of up to $7.8 million through the Emergency Processing Fund for 24 meat processing companies across the Prairies.

The funding will enable social distancing,the purchase of reuseable personal protective equipment (PPE), installation of protective barriers, improved sanitation and employee training.

In Alberta, these projects include:

• Aliya’s Foods Limited – $406,999
• Bouvry Export Calgary Ltd. – $27,150
• Bry-Conn Developments Inc. – $16,576
• Canada Lamb Processors Ltd.- $22,404
• Cut-Rite Meats Ltd. – $71,432
• Forestburg Meat Processing Inc. – $137,271
• Harmony Beef Company Limited – $88,134
• Irvings Farm Fresh Ltd. – $44,250
• JBS Food Canada – $804,912
• Provost Packers Ltd. – $49,980
• Ryley Sausage (1991) Ltd. – $44,182
• Serben Farms – $14,500
• Soleterra d’Italia – $231,096
• Spolumbo’s Fine Foods & Deli – $69,472
• Trochu Meat Processors Ltd. – $63,287
• Viva Deli Inc. – $70,184

Saskatchewan projects include:

• Drake Meat Processors Inc. – $49,500
• Pineview All Natural Meats Inc. – $40,000
• Prairie Pride Natural Foods Ltd. – $14,175

Manitoba projects include:

• 6381023 Manitoba Ltd. – $320,000
• East 40 Packers Ltd. – $99,999
• HyLife Ltd. – $3,670,334
• Timothy’s Country Butcher Shop – $32,174
• Winkler Meats Ltd. – $1,447,693

Across the Prairies, the meat processing industry accounts for 19,000 jobs and $12 billion in sales, or nearly half of total food processing jobs and sales on the Prairies.