Province announced multimillion-dollar investment to increase food processing capacity in Manitoba

In an effort to create more agricultural jobs and allow producers to sell more of their product locally in Manitoba, the province announced a new multi-million dollar investment on Thursday.

“We are announcing a funding of up to $15.4 in funding for the next four years to projects all across the province of Manitoba,” said Ron Kostyshyn, Agriculture Minister.

“The importance of agriculture in the province of Manitoba is very very crucial,” added Kostyshyn.

This funding will support 70 projects through the Capital Infrastructure and Investments program, allowing companies like Burnbrae Farms to expand and improve efficiency.

“Were installing new freezers, a gable top fill line – as you can see behind me these are gable top packaging, packaging equipment, depalletizers & palletizers, along with an eggs-cargo system which allows you to expand into more robotics,” said Frank Both, Director of Western Canada Operations at Burnbrae Farms.

In addition to purchasing more equipment to help with the production process, funding will also create more jobs in the agricultural sector. Despite the egg robot replacing two labour jobs at Burnbrae Farms, Director of Western Canada Operations for Burnbrae, Frank Both says this funding will open up 10-15 jobs in other areas.

“It may have taken away the heavy labour job which we’ve easily put into different areas of our facility, but in the same token it created a job for a person with technical skills in working with these types of equipment,” said Both.

“Our province is growing, we need people to work in these industries such as Burnbrae Farms and any other opportunities, and I think we’re very fortunate that we have people coming to our province of Manitoba and looking for work as well,” said Kostyshyn.

Along with Burnbrae Farms, other companies receiving funding to expand include the Kimberly Packing Corporation, Roquette Canada, and Spenst Bros Premium Meats.