Saskatchewan's Agriculture Minister says the opening of a new cull sow processing plant at Moose Jaw will add to the tax base that helps pay for such things as the construction of new schools, new hospitals and new highways in the province.
Last month North 49 Foods, a subsidiary of British Columbia based Donald's Fine Foods, officially opened its new federally inspected sow processing facility at Moose Jaw.
Saskatchewan Agriculture Minister David Marit told those on hand last night for Saskatchewan pork Industry Symposium 2023, whether it's pork, cattle, grains, oilseeds, we want to start processing more of what we grow here and this new plant provides another venue to do that.
Quote-David Marit-Saskatchewan Agriculture Minister:
I think really what it does is it allows the producers an opportunity to market where they're not going to be paying big trucking costs but what it means to the province is another company, more employees, a lot of people working.Obviously they're going to be buying homes, they're going to be buying vehicles, they’re going to be doing everything.
My understanding is when it hits peak production, it's 250 thousand sows that won't be going across the border that will be in production here.It's all part of our growth strategy where we really want to see the value-added processing increase in the province of Saskatchewan.The pork industry is a big industry here in the province.
We still see a mass exodus of hogs to the United States with isoweans but even on the slaughter side to Maple Leaf in Brandon and also in Manitoba.We have Donalds Fine Foods with their processing plant in Moose Jaw.This adds to that.But really where it helps is, you look at a community like Moose Jaw and now, whether this facility ramps up to 80 people or 100 people or what ever the case may be, it's going to have a spinoff.
It's going to have a spinoff for industry, for the trucking side, for all sides and aspects of it and I think we don't know the full amount yet but it's going to be significant to the community, not just to the community of Moose Jaw but to the province as a whole.It's going to improve the tax base.We're going to have tax payers paying.
How do we build schools, how do we build hospitals, how do we build highways? People paying income tax in the province of Saskatchewan allows us the opportunity to do more.
Marit says this is a great story that he loves to talk about for the province of Saskatchewan.
Source : Farmscape.ca