The federal government has announced $10 million in funding to expand a hog processing plant in Neepawa, Man.
The announcement came on the same day that it was made public that Ottawa was pulling a $10 million loan for a proposed cattle slaughterhouse in Winnipeg,
The interest free loan will pay for renovations at the Hylife Foods plant in Neepawa, which will employ 750 workers and slaughter 5,500 hogs per day when the expansion is complete.
“Our government knows how critical the livestock and processing industry is to Manitoba, which is why our government announced a $10 million investment for Hylife Foods LP under the Slaughter Improvement Program,” agriculture minister Gerry Ritz said in a July 13 statement.
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The company said it will upgrade the plant’s wet area, expand the cooler and cutting areas and buy new equipment to enable further processing.
“Manitoba’s pork producers have faced a number of challenges over the last few years, but minister Ritz and his government have not wavered in their support,” said Manitoba Pork chair Karl Kynoch.
“Likewise, HyLife has continued to demonstrate its commitment to Neepawa and to building the best plant it can for the long term.”
The federal government’s decision to fund Hylife while pulling funding from the Keystone Processors beef slaughter plant in Winnipeg caught provincial politicians off guard.
Manitoba agriculture minister Stan Struthers said the province had an agreement with the federal government since fall 2009 to build the beef plant in Winnipeg.
“To have the federal Conservatives, at this point, come along and pull that money that they promised to contribute to this project… it’s more than a little bit frustrating.”
