A financial commitment from the Saskatchewan government has moved Worldwide Pork one step closer to re-opening.
Saskatchewan agriculture minister Mark Wartman said the province will provide up to $1.5 million to help get the Moose Jaw pork processing facility running again.
He said the money is not a loan but neither would he characterize it as a grant. Further details about the assistance will be available when the plant reopens, he said.
The money doesn’t guarantee the plant will open because it is contingent on the company getting court approval of its business plan to come out of bankruptcy protection.
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However, Larry Kowalchuk, the lawyer representing the plant’s unionized workers, said it does show support at a critical time.
“It’s enough to save the (Canadian Food Inspection Agency) certification, which expired tomorrow (April 28),” he said in an interview.
That certification allowed the company to export pork to Japan.
Kowalchuk said private investors are being put in place and the last item to conclude is a payroll deduction plan to allow the employees to take some ownership through a labour-sponsored venture capital fund. The employees are represented by the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union.
There were 270 workers laid off when the plant closed almost a year ago after producers stopped delivering hogs because they weren’t being paid.
More than 100 workers have since left for Alberta, Kowalchuk said. Others were planning to leave at the end of April but will likely change their minds, he said.
“Everyone had to take care of their lives,” he explained
“A lot will come back. This is where they want to live.”
Workers who were at the Saskatchewan legislature on April 27 said they were relieved the government had finally stepped forward with its money.
They hope the plant will be open by the end of May or early June.
Wartman had always said the government would help but would wait until the company emerged from court protection before announcing what form that help would take.
He said he changed his mind because there were “confusing messages” to workers and the public, and the CFIA expiration was nearing.
“We didn’t want it to be held up by us at all,” he said.
The government has also converted its $2.3 million in debt to equity in the new company that will own the plant. But the minister said the province doesn’t want an ownership stake.
“Eventually we’d be quite happy to have someone take it over,” he said.
