Toronto-based Maple Leaf announced Wednesday that operations at the company’s Kennedy Road poultry slaughter and packing plant in Brampton are suspended “while we complete an investigation” into the three coronavirus cases.

Meanwhile, CEO Michael McCain said in a statement, the company is now “deep-cleaning the plant including common areas and offices.”

While the company plans to complete that work “as quickly as reasonably possible,” he said, “we will not begin operating again until we are confident that it is safe to return to work.”

The Brampton poultry plant, along with another older poultry plant in Toronto, is already scheduled to close permanently by mid- to late 2022.

That move, announced in 2018, will follow completion of a new plant at London, Ont., where the company plans to consolidate its Ontario fresh poultry processing starting next year.

Maple Leaf’s other Brampton plant — a further-processing facility for chicken strips, sausages and boxed meats on Walker Drive — underwent a $25 million expansion about seven years ago.

McCain on Wednesday also confirmed the previously-reported COVID-19 diagnosis of a “team member” from the company’s Hamilton processed-meats plant, but noted that employee “had not been present at the plant for two weeks before the diagnosis.”

The Hamilton plant — a next-to-new facility, completed in 2014 — is “fully operating” after “thorough sanitation” was completed at the site, McCain said Wednesday.

McCain emphasized that “government experts in Canada and the U.S. have made it clear that COVID-19 is not a foodborne illness and there is currently no evidence that food is a likely source or route of transmission of COVID-19.”

However, he also noted “additional steps” now being taken at Maple Leaf facilities on top of the “normal, thorough daily sanitation in our plants” and employees’ standard use of personal protective equipment.

Among those, he said, are “increased, frequent sanitation of all common areas” such as break rooms, washrooms, locker rooms and cafeterias; social distancing through “increased spacing on production lines where possible;” staggered breaks and shifts; and using trailers and converted office space “to decrease the density of our people during breaks.”

Maple Leaf is also phasing in temperature screening of “all front-line employees” as temperature scanners are received at its sites, he said. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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Toronto-based Maple Leaf announced Monday it will build a 640,000-square foot plant at London, billed as “one of the most technologically advanced poultry-processing plants in the world, with leading-edge food safety, environmental, and animal welfare processes and technologies.”

Construction is expected to start next spring at a 100-acre site along London’s Wilton Grove Road, just south of Highway 401, toward a plant start-up in the second quarter of 2021.

“This world-class facility will enable Maple Leaf to meet the steadily growing consumer demand for premium, value-added poultry products, and strengthen Canada’s food system,” CEO Michael McCain said in a release.

The new plant, he said, is expected to support over 1,450 direct full- and part-time jobs at first and ensure Canada has “sufficient domestic processing capacity to meet forecasted poultry production and demand.”

Chicken is the most consumed and fastest growing meat protein in Canada, Maple Leaf said, as it offers “versatility, nutrition and a lower environmental footprint.”

The company noted “particularly high demand for raised without antibiotics and halal chicken products, where Maple Leaf has the leading national brands.”

The new London plant “will address constraints in Maple Leaf’s current Ontario network, enhance operating efficiencies, and expand its value-added product mix and capacity to meet growing consumer demand.”

To that end, production from three “sub-scale and aging” poultry plants in Ontario will be moved to London, Maple Leaf said.

The company said Monday it will close the former Schneiders poultry plant at St. Marys by late 2021, and its Toronto and Brampton poultry plants by mid- to late 2022.

Those three plants are each 50 to 60 years old, Maple Leaf said, with “location, footprint and infrastructure constraints that limit opportunities to expand and modernize to meet growing market demand.”

The company said it will work with local communities and governments to find “alternate uses” for the three plants when they close.

“While these closures are several years away we are informing our people well in advance, allowing us to openly communicate and support them through this long-term transition,” McCain said.

The $660 million to build the London plant will include an investment of $34.5 million from the Ontario government, plus $20 million from the federal Strategic Innovation Fund and an $8 million loan from the AgriInnovate Fund, Maple Leaf said.

The federal funding agreement also calls for Maple Leaf to put up $5 million over the next five years on projects which “accelerate adoption of advanced manufacturing and production technologies and support the company’s goal to reduce its environmental footprint by 50 per cent by 2025.”

Ontario Premier Doug Ford on Monday described the London plant as “the largest investment in the history of Ontario’s agriculture sector” and added it will “help make Ontario’s chicken farmers more competitive.”

The London Economic Development Corporation (LEDC) said Monday it’s working with Fanshawe College, Brescia University College and other training institutions to develop “skilled talent for food and beverage processing, as well as quality assurance, nutritional sciences, product development and food chemistry.”

Wayne Hanley, president of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1006A, which represents about 600 workers at the affected Toronto plant, said UFCW “will work to minimize the impact of this closure and to achieve the best possible outcome for our members as a result of this announcement.” — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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La Coop federee’s Olymel division in the past week has announced over $30 million for plant upgrades and the purchase of a second facility at Brampton, Ont., $14 million for a new bird reception and anaesthesia system at its Berthierville, Que. plant and an $8 million expansion of its St-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Que. chicken plant to add boning and cooking lines.

“Olymel is consolidating its position in the poultry sector in Ontario and in Canada by giving itself considerable means to increase its production capacity, actively participate in the economic development of the agri-food processing sector, and create new jobs,” CEO Rejean Nadeau said in a release last week announcing the Brampton development.

The Brampton investment, at over $30 million, is to go to redevelop Olymel’s Orenda poultry further-processing plant in that city — and to buy the former European Quality Meats plant on Westwyn Court, about 2.5 km southeast of the Orenda site, netting the company an extra 50,000 square feet of workspace.

An Olymel spokesperson said the $30 million budget would be split roughly half and half for the Orenda redevelopment and the acquisition of what Olymel will call its Westwyn plant.

The expansions at Brampton are meant to increase production capacity, particularly in its breaded poultry products segment, in order to “capitalize on business opportunities” in the HRI (hotel, restaurant, institution) network and in the retail distribution sector.

The popularity of breaded poultry products “shows no signs of slowing,” Nadeau said in last week’s release.

The Orenda plant, Olymel said, “had reached its full production capacity (and) is now equipped with a fourth breading line and high-performance equipment that are resulting in higher productivity and efficiency gains.”

The Orenda plant is also now able to produce gluten-free products “at all times,” Olymel said, both for its own house brands such as Flamingo, and for private brands.

The Orenda plant specializes in processing breaded and frozen poultry products, employs almost 320 people and operates seven days a week. The Westwyn plant, meanwhile, specializes in deboning and portioning poultry meat — previously done at the Orenda plant — employing 315 people over three shifts, five days a week, supplying Olymel’s further-processing plants and others.

“The reorganized and extended activities of these two Olymel Ontario plants that specialize in poultry processing will create more than 100 new jobs,” the company said.

The reorganization of the company’s Brampton facilities, with revised work shifts, also meant reopening a collective bargaining agreement with the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 175, Olymel noted.

Quebec upgrades

Meanwhile at Berthierville, about 60 km southwest of Trois-Rivieres, Olymel has pledged $14 million to redevelop a section of its slaughter, cutting and deboning plant and install a new carbon dioxide (CO2) bird anaesthesia system.

That plant, which already has capacity to process almost a million birds per week, supplies other Olymel plants with fresh meat and provides other fresh products including various cuts as well as trussed chickens for rotisseries.

The redevelopment, due to begin next month for completion next fall, is to include construction of a new building for receiving birds and running CO2 anaesthesia, and to house related new equipment.

The CO2 system, Olymel said, is expected to reduce bird stress, in particular due to a 40 per cent larger crate; to “significantly” improve the work environment for employees assigned to slaughtering, with better lighting and air conditioning and “far less” dust; and to boost the plant’s production capacity in terms of volume.

Olymel said it also plans to set up CO2 systems by 2019 at its other primary poultry processing plants at St-Damase and Monteregie, and at its joint-venture Sunnymel plant at Clair, N.B.

The $8 million plant expansion announced Wednesday for Olymel’s St-Jean-sur-Richelieu site, just southeast of Montreal, will include new construction along with new equipment for chicken boning and cooking — a “new activity” that’s expected to create another 40 plant jobs once the work is completed in April.

The St-Jean-sur-Richelieu plant, which gets its fresh meat from the St-Damase, Monteregie and Sunnymel plants, will then begin producing value-added diced chicken for HRI clients, for use in dishes such as pates, soups and salads.

The further-processing plant already makes products such as cold cuts, tournedos, chicken skewers and turkey roasts. The construction work is expected to add nearly 14,000 square feet of workspace there, bringing its total area to over 37,000 square feet. — AGCanada.com Network

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The company on Tuesday said it would put up $10 million to install an air chilling room at its primary chicken processing plant at St-Damase, just south of St-Hyacinthe in Quebec’s Monteregie.

The rue Principale plant, whose clientele includes the rotisserie and retail distribution sectors, will “enjoy more flexibility” with an air chilling system as well as the water cooling process it already uses.

The addition of an air chilling room is expected to create 10 new jobs at the plant, Olymel said.

Company CEO Rejean Nadeau on Tuesday also telegraphed “another major investment” to be announced soon for its poultry further-processing plant at Brampton, Ont.

“This new investment in St-Damase and projects elsewhere in the poultry sector, both completed and planned, will also help to consolidate our presence on the markets, while generating important spinoffs for poultry producers,” he said.

The St-Damase expansion work is expected to begin around May 15, for completion in September, and “will not affect the normal conduct of the plant’s operations,” Olymel said.

The company, which bills itself as Canada’s No. 1 poultry processing firm by volume, uses the St-Damase plant to supply fresh poultry and poultry cuts to private customers and to feed product to its own further-processing plant at nearby Ste-Rosalie, among others.

The expansion will see the St-Damase plant, which was rebuilt in 1997 after a major fire, built out by about 15,000 feet, to over 95,000. — AGCanada.com Network

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The truckload of cheese had been reported stolen from the Brampton, Ont. area on Tuesday, York Regional Police said in a release.

The YRP said they then got a call shortly after 1 a.m. Wednesday about what appeared to be a stolen tractor trailer parked near the intersection of Hwys. 7 and 27, in the Woodbridge area of the GTA.

By the time police caught up with the truck, it was being driven in the Royal Group Crescent area nearby, where officers tried to pull it over but the driver “refused to stop.”

YRP officers didn’t pursue, citing concern for public safety, but got a call a few minutes later about a rolled-over tractor trailer a few kilometres west, around Hwys. 7 and 427.

Officers and a canine unit began tracking suspects from the abandoned tractor trailer, police said. YRP and Ontario Provincial Police arrested one man found driving in another car on Royal Crest Drive, then arrested two other suspects found trying to hail a cab nearby.

All three men — a 36-year-old and 31-year-old from Brampton and a 19-year-old of no fixed address — have been charged with theft over $5,000 and possession of property obtained by crime over $5,000, and were held in custody pending a bail hearing later Wednesday, YRP said.

It’s not yet known whether the truck or the contents were the goal of the alleged theft. CBC Toronto on Wednesday quoted YRP Cst. Andy Pattenden as saying the truck contained over 30,000 pounds of cheese of a “pretty high value.”

Also, Pattenden told CBC, cargo theft is known to be an issue in the area, with any commodity “of high value” as the objective. — AGCanada.com Network

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