Barrett to McGuinty: “Pick up the phone on Smucker’s Closures”

For Immediate Release:
September 30, 2010

Queen’s Park – Haldimand-Norfolk MPP Toby Barrett today urged Premier Dalton McGuinty to pick up the phone and call Smuckers.

This comes on the heels of news that The J.M. Smucker Company will close its Dunnville manufacturing facility, as well as its Delhi tank farm by November 2011. The closures will cost the area 150 jobs, let alone the effect the move will have on local farmers.

“At minimum Ontario’s Premier must pick up the phone and call Smuckers,” Barrett said in the Ontario Legislature today. “With every challenge comes an opportunity. My hope is that a willing buyer or two will see these facilities as an opportunity. But this government has to show some leadership and commence a close-working relationship with Smuckers and other interested stakeholders.”

Barrett explained the vegetable processing plant is Dunnville’s last source of industry in the downtown – this week’s news is a truly an economic blow to the town. Delhi too has endured its fair share of economic woes as the McGuinty government has sat idly by as the tobacco industry has been devastated.

“Therefore it’s high time this government step up to the plate and offer incentive to maintain jobs both in Dunnville and in Delhi,” Barrett told members of the Ontario Legislature.

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For more information, please contact MPP Toby Barrett at
(519) 428-0446 or (905)-765-8413, 1-800-903-8629