Maple Leaf Pork has cleared an important hurdle getting approval to expand its hog processing plant in Brandon.
The expansion would see the number of hogs slaughtered there increase to 90,000 from 45,000 head per week.
Manitoba Conservation minister Steve Ashton said Nov. 3 he has accepted in principle recommendations of the Clean Environment Commission concerning the expansion.
“If you had any kind of development, it has to withstand appropriate environmental scrutiny, and that’s what the CEC was about in this case.”
He said Maple Leaf now must decide when it will to go ahead with the expansion.
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The work will include alterations to the existing slaughter plant, plus adding more capacity to a waste water treatment facility that serves the plant.
The earliest the plant could start working toward a full second shift would be mid-2005, said Steve LeBlanc, manager of human resources for Maple Leaf Pork (Manitoba).
Besides preparing for construction work that would accompany expansion, the company also must look at hog supply, markets for the additional pork that would be processed and the supply of labour for a second shift, LeBlanc said.
The expansion would add more cooler space and additional room in shipping and receiving.
While a second shift could start in the summer of 2005, it would take months before it reached full capacity. LeBlanc would not speculate on when full capacity would be reached.
Details were not available about who will pay for the expansion of the waste water treatment plant, which was built by the city and province to accommodate the first phase of the plant, which opened in 1999. Maple Leaf pays the city to operate the wastewater facility.
It’s not clear how much hog barn development would be triggered in the region as a result of the added hog slaughter capacity. LeBlanc said there appears to be adequate farrowing capacity, but more finishing capacity would likely be needed.
Marcel Hacault, chair of the Manitoba Pork Council, said there probably would be enough finished hogs to satisfy the expanded plant if Maple Leaf closed its hog processing facilities in Winnipeg and was willing to offer prices that would keep more weanlings from making their way into the United States.
One of the commission’s recommendations raised red flags for Hacault. It calls for a review of the sustainability of hog production in the Assiniboine River basin.
