Maple Leaf scores $90,000 grant for training
Maple Leaf Foods has been given $90,300 in taxpayer money to finance technology training for some salaried staff.
Ontario Agriculture Minister Jeff Leal announced the grant Monday.
It is part of a grants package of more than $740,000 already announced for the area under the joint federal-provincial Growing Forward program. That’s an effort to improve productivity, innovation and exports in the food production and processing business.
“This is a significant investment in the agri-food sector,” Leal told a gathering at the Maple Leaf plant on Glover Road. “This is all about our next generation being able to seek their destiny in their home communities.”
A government news release said the money will “build leadership capacity and drive high performance results by delivering a team-based continuous learning and improvement environment” for 140 salaried staff who need upgrades in computer skills to deal with modern production machinery.
The training was delivered through a deal with Mohawk College. The college also helped train 200 production staff on the new machinery before being transferred to the new plant.
Maple Leaf president Michael McCain welcomed the grant as a boost to a sevenyear, $1-billion retooling of the food giant.
“This is an exciting time for Maple Leaf,” he said of the long and painful restructuring. “We are building a great and sustainable food company that will be globally competitive.
“We have trained all of these people for this shiny, brand new processed meats mother ship,” he added. “With this training we will be able to take the lead in food production for generations to follow.”
As part of its restructuring, Maple Leaf closed several older meat processing plants and invested heavily in a near state-of-theart facility in Hamilton. It employs 700 workers, 75 per cent of them in what McCain called knowledge-based jobs that require dealing with technology.
Since 2013 the federal and provincial governments have handed out more than $44 million under the Growing Forward 2 program, supporting 850 projects.
Earlier grants in the Hamilton area include three totalling $85,000 to Denninger’s for studies and new machinery, more than $72,700 to Steep Tea for equipment and training and $100,000 to Karma Candy for new equipment.