Supporting Quebec food processors in their effort to protect employees

Oct 14, 2020

Ottawa, Ontario – The Honourable Marie-Claude Bibeau, Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food, announced an investment of over $380,000 under the Emergency Processing Fund for four local food processors in the Saguenay-Lac-St-Jean region of Quebec.

The first investment of $236,000 will provide Serres Toundra, a cucumber processing plant located in Saint-Félicien, with the support to purchase personal protective equipment (PPE), including a thermal camera for taking the temperature, a centralized disinfection system for their warehouse and hygiene stations.

The three other investments made through the Quebec Food Processing Council (CTAQ) will benefit processors in Alma, including:

$42,000 for Boucherie-Charcuterie Perron;
$17,500 for Charcuterie L. Fortin; and
$86,000 for Nutrinor Cooperative.

This funding will support these Quebec processors to purchase personal protective equipment (PPE), adapt ventilation systems and reorganize warehouses to help ensure physical distancing of employees.

The Government of Canada will continue to protect the health and safety of all Canadians from COVID-19, including those in the food processing sector who work hard to provide us with high-quality food.

Source : Government of Canada

Video: New research chair appointed to accelerate crop variety development

Funded by Sask Wheat, the Wheat Pre-Breeding Chair position was established to enhance cereal research breeding and training activities in the USask Crop Development Centre (CDC) by accelerating variety development through applied genomics and pre-breeding strategies.

“As the research chair, Dr. Valentyna Klymiuk will design and deploy leading-edge strategies and technologies to assess genetic diversity for delivery into new crop varieties that will benefit Saskatchewan producers and the agricultural industry,” said Dr. Angela Bedard-Haughn (PhD), dean of the College of Agriculture and Bioresources at USask. “We are grateful to Sask Wheat for investing in USask research as we work to develop the innovative products that strengthen global food security.”

With a primary focus on wheat, Klymiuk’s research will connect discovery research, gene bank exploration, genomics, and breeding to translate gene discovery into improved varieties for Saskatchewan’s growing conditions.