Maple Leaf Deal by Mid-September
August 26, 2005

A document of the Realtors Association of Hamilton-Burlington says a deal to build a Maple Leaf slaughterhouse and pork processing plant in Glanbrook will likely be finalized by mid-September and be supported by the majority of councillors. The association's "Maple Leaf Foods Pork Plant Fact Sheet" was sent this week to city councillors by the executive director of the Hamilton Chamber of Commerce, John Dolbec.

The August 22 fact sheet says a deal is expected to be announced in the middle of September to locate the plant in the Glanbrook Industrial Park". The possibility of Maple Leaf shifting production from Burlington to Hamilton first surfaced in a July 9 Hamilton Spectator column by Andrew Dreschel.

The Realtors' document also says that Maple Leaf has already "made presentations to the City's Planning and Economic Development Committee" about their proposals. This directly contradicts assertions of the chair of the committee, Terry Whitehead, who assured an August 9 public meeting of the Committee Against Pig Slaughterhouses that no application has been received from the company and that a full public process will take place before any decision is made.

The Maple Leaf issue has not appeared on any public agenda or minutes of the committee, but could have been discussed in camera during the "negotiations over a 10-month period" that the Realtors document says have taken place between the city and Maple Leaf.

Their document also says the new Maple Leaf facility is "estimated to produce $10 million in tax revenue for the City of Hamilton". The proposed Glanbrook plant is scheduled to replace a Burlington facility of similar size that pays less than $1 million a year in taxes to that municipality. By way of comparison, Stelco's annual property tax payment to Hamilton is $10.5 million.

Dolbec's email to councillors also includes graphs of housing price trends in Burlington showing substantial increases in sale prices over the last ten years in a large zone bounded by Guelph Line, Highway 5, Burloak Drive and New Street that includes about half of the City of Burlington.

Dolbec notes that Maple Leaf's facilities are inside this zone and says: "You will note that the plant's location there does not appear to have had any material negative impact on local property values. And this is not the state of the art facility that they are considering building here."

The Maple Leaf facilities are in an industrial zone near the QEW and Appleby Line at least one kilometre from the closest residential areas. Dolbec concludes his email by declaring that "the facts speak for themselves".

The Realtors' fact sheet can be viewed at
http://www.hamiltoncatch.org/pdfs/MapleLeafFactSheet.pdf.