Over the weekend, Alberta’s Agriculture and Forestry Minister, Devin Dreeshen held a Tele-Townhall with the Province's Labour Minister and Chief Medical Health Officer, to reassure employees from Cargill's High River Plant that their worksite is safe.
Cargill has 2000 employees at it's High River facility with about 350 testing positive for the Coronovirus.
Dreeshen told the workers that the new Federal/Provincial Business Resumption Protocol for food processing plants is quite extensive.
“A lot of it is social distancing as much as possible the wearing of masks constant sanitation and cleaning of commonly touched areas. I know even just alternating shifts, have encouraging people to have bag lunches or eat outside just as much as possible to be able to social distance people and you know, the possibility of having Plexiglas or physical barriers as well.”
He notes the Cargill facility is a key player it’s about a third of the meat that's actually processed in the country.
“We have weekly calls with all the major food processors, and they were encouraged by all the work that's been done weeks ago. So that they again can use this protocol that we've developed, you know, share it with their workers and with the union so that everybody can feel safe going to work. Even people that have been in self-isolation, feel confident that now that their two weeks are up, that they feel safe that they can come back to work. So that's something that's you know whether it's a large Cargill plant or Harmony Meats or Provincial abattoir - we want to make sure our food supply chain because it is deemed essential, that it operates.”
He notes the Province has also been working with the Federal Government to ensure Federal Meat Inspectors are available as well.
Dreeshin says over the last few weeks about 10 Provincial Meat Inspectors have gone through extra training with the CFIA to work within federally licensed facilities.
Update :
Monday afternoon, Cargill announced it would temporarily idle it's High River protein facility.
Jon Nash, Cargill Protein, North America Lead says considering the community-wide impacts of the virus, we encourage all employees to get tested for the COVID-19 virus as soon as possible.
He notes it was a difficult decision to make as an essential service.
Nash says in order to prevent food waste, they will process approximately 3 million meals currently in the facility as quickly as possible.
There is no word on how long the facility will be idled.
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