Government of Canada invests in state-of-the-art poultry facility in Ontario

 

London, Ontario - Thanks to the hard work of Canadians, Canada's economy is strong and growing, creating good jobs for the middle class and the people working hard to join it. At the same time, there is an opportunity to do more and to create more jobs across the country by encouraging businesses to make investments that will position them for long-term growth.

 

The Honorable Lawrence MacAulay, Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food, on behalf of the Honourable Navdeep Bains, Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development, announced a $28-million investment in Maple Leaf Foods, a leading Canadian producer of packaged meats.

 

The funding will go toward Maple Leaf Foods' $660-million capital investment in a new state-of-the-art, environmentally leading facility in London, Ontario. It will feature the latest advanced technologies to improve productivity, animal welfare, and the environmental sustainability of poultry production. This is part of an overall project cost of $744 million, which includes additional start-up and adjustment costs. Maple Leaf Foods will maintain and protect well-paying middle-class jobs and provide skills upgrading for the increase in automation. The new facility will create 300 immediate construction jobs and will employ 1,340 full time employees by 2023.

 

To further strengthen the Canadian agri-food sector, Maple Leaf Foods will spend an additional $5 million in activities that accelerate the adoption of advanced manufacturing technologies and reduce their environmental footprint by 50 percent.

 

As part of the Innovation and Skills Plan, these commitments support the Agri-Food Economic Strategy Table's aim to scale up capacity and boost productivity by investing in innovation, increasing market access, and adopting automation and digitization. Maple Leaf will also invest more in R&D for new product development and will increase its collaboration with post-secondary institutions to identify secondary uses for inedible by-products that would otherwise be diverted to landfill.