Nova Scotia Poultry Industry Strategic Planning Committee chairman Ian Blenkharn said Maple Lodge Farms and Nova Scotian poultry producers plan a $46 million processing plant for the former Eastern Protein Foods location. The new, private venture - to be open in 2012 - aims to process all of Nova Scotia and some of PEI’s chickens and turkeys.
“We have agreement from the parties involved that the property is there for (the new venture’s) use,” Blenkharn said after the announcement.
According to the Registry of Joint Stock Companies, Blenkharn is also the chairman, chief executive officer and president of Eastern Protein Foods, and the chairman and chief executive of its parent company, ACA Co-operative.
The provincial department of Economic and Rural Development invested $3.5 million in ACA via a working capital loan in late 2008, Eastern Protein filed for creditor protection in January 2009 and then auctioned off many of its assets - but not the property. Provincial agency Nova Scotia Business Inc. holds the mortgage on the property and is the main secured creditor.
Spokeswoman Sarah Levy says NSBI has influence over what happens with the assets, but there are no finalized arrangements about the Kentville industrial park property.
If that is the case, “it would make perfect sense for NSBI not to create any barriers for the new ownership arrangement,” Liberal agriculture critic Kings West MLA Leo Glavine says.
Any provincial money tied up in Eastern Protein should “go towards the land and upgrade of that building,” he adds, so a state-of-the-art plant can bring processing jobs back to Kings County.
Glavine sees the proposed plant as a turning point for the Valley industry, as thousands of jobs have been lost since he first took office in 2003.
“If the buy local movement is going to really take hold, we need to have our chicken and turkey processed in Nova Scotia.
“I see no reason for not being as aggressive as New Brunswick is. They introduced a bill making sure all New Brunswick chicken is processed in the province.”
Blenkharn could not be reached for further comment before press time (July 21).
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