Overview of ILO issues in Saskatchewan
Hogs
The major players in hog production in Saskatchewan are Big Sky Farms Inc. (47,000 sows), a commercial crown corporation that has over 80% provincial government ownership (pdf file) ; Stomp Pork Farms (27,000 sows), and several Hutterite colonies.The intensive hog industry in Saskatchewan has gone through a phase of expansion in the late 1990s when the provincial government actively encouraged a shift from family farm based production sold through the farmer-controlled single desk seller, SPI, to an industrial model with large-scale confined feeding operations sold through direct contracts with packing plants. (See Living in a Sea of Cheap Grain The corporate conversion of Saskatchewan's hog industry) Massive expansion in Saskatchewan and other provinces led to a price crash which forced most of the independent producers with 200 or fewer sows out of business.
Following the industrialization and ILO expansion phase there were a series of bankruptcies and business failures. The Wheat Pool's hog division, Heartland Pork Management , went bankrupt and sold its seven pork barns and feedmill operation to a subsidiary of Stomp Pork Farms in May 2004 due to "disappointing operating results and industry risks." Pure Lean, a company that used a dry-composting system of manure management went out of business in 2004. Quadra and Community Pork Ventures, which used a business plan based on local investors, amalgamated in 2000 and then went bankrupt in 2004. The provincial government purchased Community Pork Ventures for Big Sky Farms Inc. in 2005. Elite, Maple Leaf Foods Inc. attempted to build an ILO in southeastern Saskatchewan, but was met with strong community opposition. In late 2006 Maple Leaf Foods announced it was going to shrink its hog production by ending production contacts with farmers and focus only on the hog production facilities it owned outright.
Most of the expansion was funded by local people who invested their savings in the barns, as commercial lenders saw it as a bad risk. This was the business model for the Wheat Pool's pork division, Quadra, Community Pork Ventures and Pure Lean. The local investors lost all of their money when these businesses went bankrupt. The companies the bought the facilities were able to obtain the assets at a fraction of their actual cost.
When hog barns were set up in communities, proponents claimed job creation as one of the benefits. However high turnover rates due to working conditions and wages at the barns, have resulted in hog production companies recruiting labour from countries like China, Ukraine and the Phillipines.
Hand in hand with the shift in hog production there has been a shift in hog processing. In 2006 the Moose Jaw plant, formerly operating as WorldWide Pork, then as Moose Jaw Pork Packers, went bankrupt. In spite of government and worker attempts to keep the plant open, it has closed. Mitchell's, the Maple Leaf Plant in Saskatoon will close as of June 1, 2007. The majority of hogs raised in Saskatchewan will have to be shipped to Maple Leaf's plant in Brandon, MB or the Olymel plant in Red Deer.
The slaughterhouses are also having difficulty keeping workers, and are bringing in migrant workers from other countries.