MINDEMOYA—While a conditional offer has been made to purchase the Manitoulin Island Community Abattoir (MICA), until all conditions are met it is still an unsold entity.
“No, the abattoir has not been sold,” said Birgit Martin, chair of MICA, on Tuesday. “We have received an offer to purchase, but it is conditional and until all the conditions are met, it will not be sold.”
Although it has nothing to do with the potential offer of purchase for the abattoir, Central Manitoulin council, at a meeting last week, voted in favour of a recommended motion from its finance and economic development committee “to direct staff to inform the Manitoulin Island Community Abattoir that it is not within the jurisdiction of the municipality to create a new tax class, and further, that the municipality is unable to remove any interest or penalty on outstanding taxes.”
Richard Stephens, mayor of Central Manitoulin said, “there was a request from the abattoir organization for this.”
Councillor Derek Stephens said, “we have worked with them (MICA) in the past on this. It is tough that we can’t work with them now.” He added the abattoir “is an important part of the municipality, but there are only so many times we (the municipality) can help.”
Ms. Martin told the Recorder on Tuesday that MICA had not been informed of council’s decision at that time. “We had issued a request, as we had been given advice that the municipality could offer a different type of tax class for businesses such as abattoirs.”
Ms. Martin said the request for a different tax class is not part of the conditions on the potential offer for sale of the abattoir. However, she did note, “the taxes are a huge burden—they are significant for the abattoir.”
As had been reported by The Manitoulin Expositor this past January, the abattoir is up for sale as a functioning facility, with the goal of finding a new owner and operator to grow and develop the business.
“Hopefully, it won’t mean any kind of change. The board will keep operating the abattoir until a buyer is found,” Ms. Martin told The Expositor in its January 16, 2019 edition.
MICA will be able to sell the building as an operating abattoir and not simply a vacant building if it continues to operate as usual for the time being. The abattoir also serves as an important service upon which many Island farmers depend, so any shutdown would have major impacts.
The 4,200 square foot abattoir opened for business in early 2013 with the goal of saving shipping costs to approved kill facilities and reducing the environmental impact of transporting products great distances. The facility is provincially inspected by the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA).
MICA secured over $1.3 million in funding in 2012 from a variety of sources. This enabled them to hire staff for the storefront and abattoir operation as well as fund the construction of the plant.
Although the grants carried terms that required repayment if the plant was sold or did not meet the original conditions, MICA treasurer Jeff Hietkamp was quoted by The Expositor as saying the grants should now be beyond these terms.
Ms. Martin said the best future for the facility will likely happen if it is purchased and operated by a sole proprietor.
“It’s been run by a volunteer board of directors and the board can’t do any more to run the business effectively. There needs to be a marketing effort and there needs to be day-to-day management; the board can’t do that,” she said.
Ms. Martin said there are six members on the board who are all farmers that run their own personal operations and work for MICA in a volunteer capacity. The board decided to sell the facility to enable it to grow beyond the means of its current members.
There is currently one harvest day scheduled per week with OMAFRA and the abattoir generally operates at least three weeks per month.
“I mentioned that a marketing effort is required, well realistically, the plant should be running every week. A sole proprietor would have the time and the means to do that to get more volume through the plant,” said Ms. Martin.
“With any luck, the new owner would be able to increase business for local farmers to buy livestock or cattle for them to process and sell locally, across the Island and beyond. It should be good news for everybody and it would be a win-win in the end.”
Should a buyer be found, the existing board will dissolve.
Mr. Hietkamp was quoted as saying in January that despite the financial situation improving through the years as the number of processed animals increased, the abattoir has yet to post a profit. In December of 2016, MICA was late on a hydro payment and was facing fines until Hydro One arranged to waive them.
According to MICA board members, the facility could easily handle a measured increase in production as-is, or with the addition of an on-site processing facility its growth could be much larger.
