ONTARIO NEWS RELEASE: Ontario Launches Plan to Secure Energy for GenerationsCanada and Ontario Strengthening Province’s Agri-Food Industry

“Our producers and processors work hard to make sure our food meets the highest standards for safety and quality,” said the Honourable Heath MacDonald, federal Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food. “This great initiative is helping them adopt the latest technologies in traceability and food safety so they can respond to consumer demands, grow their operations, and put more money back into their pockets.”

“Ontario’s agri-food industry produces world-class food products and our government is making investments to help local businesses grow their operations, create jobs and increase their exports,” said Trevor Jones, Ontario Minister of Agriculture, Food and Agribusiness. “The Food Safety and Growth Initiative will help Ontario to further increase and diversify our agri-food exports to new markets, while strengthening the long-term competitiveness and growth of our local agri-food champions during this time of economic uncertainty.”

Under the initiative, eligible food processors, producers and service providers can receive up to $75,000 per project to improve food safety systems, adopt new food safety and traceability equipment, technologies and standards and provide related training to employees.

Examples of projects include:

• Vision Greens Inc., in Welland, is receiving up to $75,000 to purchase and install water filtration systems that will treat the water reaching their plants and increase food safety.
• Shefa Meats, in Toronto, is receiving up to $74,684 to hire third-party consultants to improve their traceability program, install a barcoding system to increase traceability of products and expand their customer base.
• West Grey Premium Beef Inc., in Durham, is receiving up to $75,000 to purchase and install new clipping and packaging equipment and third-party services to update food safety programs to increase traceability and food safety of product and meet customer demands.

Sustainable CAP is a five-year, $3.5-billion investment by federal, provincial and territorial governments to strengthen competitiveness, innovation and resiliency of Canada’s agriculture, agri‐food and agri‐based products sector. This includes $1 billion in federal programs and activities and a $2.5-billion commitment that is cost-shared 60 per cent federally and 40 per cent provincially/territorially for programs that are designed and delivered by provinces and territories.