The Ontario government will put up another $500,000 toward a new multi-species abattoir for the province’s northwestern Rainy River district.
The investment, flowing through the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corp. (NOHFC), will bring provincial support for the non-profit, community-owned abattoir project to $1 million, the province said Tuesday.
The facility will be sited at a new industrial park at Emo, near the Ontario-Minnesota border and about 180 km south of Kenora.
“Developing this agricultural infrastructure will also promote the creation of value-added opportunities in meat processing, such as new dry and frozen meat products,” the province said Tuesday.
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“The facility will be used by livestock producers of a various species including cattle, sheep, hogs, elk and bison” and is expected to create four permanent jobs, the province said.
The NOHFC will also put up $121,900 for the Township of Emo to provide the services required for the abattoir to set up as the “anchor tenant” in its industrial park.
Northern Development Minister Michael Gravelle, who also chairs the NOHFC, noted in a release that setting up an abattoir in the Rainy River area was an “important recommendation” of Bob Rosehart’s report.
Rosehart, a former president of Lakehead University at Thunder Bay, was appointed by the province in 2007 as the “economic facilitator” for Ontario’s northwest, tasked with co-ordinating efforts to improve the region’s “economic foundation.” He presented his report to Gravelle in March last year.
There are now over 300 livestock operations and over 25,000 head of cattle in the Rainy River district, the province noted in its release.
