MANITOULIN—Local farmers have expressed serious concerns with the news that the abattoir located in Providence Bay, operated by Limestone Group, has been shut down for essentially the past three months.
A statement from George McGaffin, manager of Limestone Group states, “due to the price of cattle, many farmers have been shipping their livestock to market, mainly off-Island rather than through the abattoir. It was also pointed out another reason that the abattoir has closed is due to the lack of qualified personnel, namely a butcher.”
“Effectively, mid-June the abattoir was closed. There is no date for reopening,” the statement reads.
John McNaughton, president of the Manitoulin Cattleman’s Association (MCA) said, “I’ve heard that something was going on with the abattoir, but I didn’t know it was that it had undergone a shutdown. Someone had told me the abattoir was reducing the number of kills it has going through.”
“This will affect a lot of farmers,” said Mr. McNaughton. “I know in my case it will be more difficult for me to get beef for me and to customers. I currently have animals that would soon have been going through the abattoir. I was hoping to get meat after the hunt season.”
“This certainly does affect many farmers,” said Mr. McNaughton. “This is very concerning news. I was on the committee that for a number of years had pushed to get an abattoir going on the Island. This is sad news that it has closed.”
“Closing presents a lot of problems to hard-working farmers like myself,” said Al Tribinevicius, of Tehkummah. “I had used the abattoir this past spring. I took a cattle beast in, one that I had raised. They did a beautiful job at the abattoir; it was a very professional job.”
“Now farmers are going to have to take their animals to Massey, Sturgeon Falls or other locations, and it will mean a long wait time,” said Mr. Tribinevicius.
“It took many years to get an abattoir here on the Island,” Mr. Tribinevicius continued. “They have a really good operation on the Island that worked really well and had low impacts on the environment. It was important to have an operation. This is just another hardship on farmers.”
