By Paul Morden, From www.theobserver.ca The Observer
Food plant shutdowns and cutbacks in southwestern Ontario are discouraging for Sarnia-Lambton officials working to attract those types of jobs, but not enough that they’re giving up.
When the Sarnia-Lambton Economic Partnership provided a recent update of its strategic plan, it said food processing operations were among the sectors it’s pursuing.
That came as Heinz announced it was shutting down in Leamington and Kellogg moved to close a London cereal plant. Just recently, Cargill said it’s cutting jobs at a London plant.
“When you lose these large companies like this, it’s not a good sign,” said partnership general manager George Mallay.
But, he added, Ontario has more than 3,000 food processing companies employing a total of 125,000 workers.
“There are changes happening in the food processing industry, in terms of markets and tastes,” Mallay said. “So, I think there are still niche opportunities.”
And, the recent news hasn’t been all bad, with California-based Misionero Vegetables announcing a new plant in Brantford, and pizza-making Dr. Oetker planning for a 130-job operation in London.
Mallay said there will still be new investments in the sector and Sarnia-Lambton wants to be on the radar when they happen.
Earlier this year, Lambton County Warden Todd Case raised the issue of provincial support for a local food processing industry when he and other community leaders met with Premier Kathleen Wynne.
Sarnia Mayor Mike Bradley, chairperson of the economic partnership, said he expects its board will discuss the recent closings when it meets again.
“It’s a bit of a wake-up call to see how much effort do you want to expend in this direction,” he said.
“We’ll see where it goes, and see if we have some success stories. That’s how we’ll measure it.”
At this point, Bradley said there remains a belief that attracting food processing plants will allow Sarnia-Lambton to gain more value from its strong farming base.
Currently, there are only a few small-scale food processing and packaging operations in Lambton, but no large employers.
“I don’t know that it will ever be a major job-creator for us,” Mallay said.
Traditionally, food processing operations have located close to Toronto, “but for companies serving Ontario and U.S. markets, there’s no reason it can’t work here,” he said.
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