Bashaw, Alta., will lose its largest employer when the Saputo cheese
plant closes on March 31.
“It hurts,” said Bashaw mayor Dale Gust.”It’s a sad day for the
community and a sad day for the employees.”
He said some of the plant’s 88 workers will be offered jobs in Saputo’s
other factories in other communities, but others will be out of work.
The cheese factory, and before that a creamery, has been a permanent
fixture in the community for as long as Gust or anyone else can
remember.
A highway signpost calls Bashaw the cheese capital of Western Canada.
Last summer a cheeseburger festival was introduced as a community
development project to showcase its largest industries, beef and cheese.
It’s too early to know what will happen to the building or if it has a
future as another business.
In its News release
news, Saputo said it closed the factory for
“rationalization” reasons. It picked up the plant last year when it
bought Dairyworld.
