LETHBRIDGE, Alta. – Charges that a proposed hog processing plant could cost Lethbridge city taxpayers more than $9.6 million are wrong, says the mayor.
“It’s absolute drivel,” said David Carpenter, in an interview following a public meeting last week.
Carpenter said numbers presented at the meeting by business consultant Al Barnhill included costs but ignored earnings for the city once the proposed plant is operating. The plant is being built by Yuan Yi Agricultural and Livestock Enterprise Co. of Taiwan.
Barnhill’s report claimed the city is waiving utility charges and will provide water, sewage, road and electrical services at a cost of more than $7 million.
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The mayor said no charges for utilities will be waived. The city also expects to collect $210,000 a year in taxes from the plant and will receive $100,000 each year for 10 years to pay for the land.
“To see him make his entire presentation totally ignoring the revenue side of the estimation, either his heart wasn’t in it or he didn’t do enough research,” said Carpenter.
Barnhill said his figures came from private research into engineers’ reports and other records.
“It’s a bad deal for the people of Lethbridge,” he told about 120 people at a meeting of the Southern Alberta Council on Public Affairs, a group that gathers regularly to discuss local issues. City officials were not at the meeting.
In the land purchase agreement, the city has agreed to service the property, including construction of water services, sewage lines, waste-water storage and electrical distribution and roadways.
Carpenter said plant construction is continuing because there is a contract between the city and Yuan Yi, but continued complaints could make the Taiwan company nervous.
“We could lose the plant, so we have to fight any delays,” said the mayor.
Grant not guaranteed
Barnhill said other costs include building a $1.5 million special waste-water tank to hold effluent before it is discharged into the city sewer system.
The city applied for a $500,000 grant from the Canada Agri-Infrastructure Program and approval of that grant is contingent upon an environmental screening by the Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration.
The city needs economic development but this one comes at a high cost to the environment, said Barnhill. It will encourage local hog production without proven overseas demand for pork, he said.
“My advice to Yuan Yi as a business consultant is they take another look at pork processing in Canada. Even if the product is directed at Asia, the demand for pork products in Asia is weak.”
Barnhill also questioned the economic spinoffs to the city, suggesting not enough is known about Yuan Yi’s labor practices or corporate principles. He speculated local employees will probably receive starting wages of around $8.50, based on wages in other Alberta meat plants, and that is just over the poverty line.
A lawsuit brought against the city is scheduled for Court of Queen’s Bench Nov. 21 in Lethbridge. Four citizens have filed a complaint that the city failed to follow proper procedure when it changed a local zoning bylaw to allow construction of the plant on the east side of the city.
