By Dave Cooper, Edmonton Journal October 18, 2012

EDMONTON – A leak from a small oil-collector pipeline on Shane Tower’s Breton-area property in June looked like a dark stain on his freshly seeded land.

But the event has escalated, with pipeline owners Sinopec Daylight Energy appearing before a judge on Thursday, seeking access to Tower’s property, 75 kilometres west of Leduc, so they can finish site restoration and restart pumping. The company can’t put the well back into production until the pipeline is covered and the line tested. Tower has refused to let them on his land until they agree to compensation.

Daylight was not granted an injunction Thursday and the case is scheduled to be heard in an Edmonton courtroom on Nov. 27.

“We simply don’t know what else to do. We could resolve this in 15 minutes if Daylight would sit down,” said Tower. “Right now there is a 150-foot trench surrounded by fencing and I have to drive through a field to get to my new house.”

Tower said he won’t budge and let Daylight finish its work — a new segment of pipe is already installed — until it agrees to compensation. “I have sunk $50,000 into this to date for a lawyer to try to negotiate agreements and my lost wages. And if I have to build a new driveway because they won’t let me use the drilling access road which I have always been able to use, that will be another $50,000.”

Randy Ford, vice-president of drilling for Daylight, said his firm had a worksite agreement with Tower to work on their right-of-way, “and he is not allowing us back in.”

Ford could say little about the case.

“Maybe we will be able to resolve this before the case goes to court.”

There also appears to be an issue with a water well on Tower’s property. It was drilled in 2009. After the Daylight rupture, water in the well was tested as part of an environmental study around the spill site. The results showed high levels of benzene and other toxic hydrocarbons in the water. Tower doesn’t know the source, but notes the only oil well on his land is the 1960s-era well that is hooked up to the pipeline that ruptured. There are also wells on neighbouring properties.

“We have been on bottled water ever since we found out, but were advised by the health authorities not to even bathe in this water. We have horses on the property as well,” he said.

Tower works as a well-completion consultant and is away from home working on drilling rigs much of the time. His wife and children tried to avoid the property during the summer.

“They went on a lot of camping trips. It is terrible and we were thinking of selling this property, but who is going to buy land with no drinking water?”

Daylight provided a portable cistern with fresh water, but Tower says the company doesn’t intend to winterize it. Without a thorough — and expensive — environmental assessment, Tower doesn’t know where to drill a new well.

“I don’t know the extent of the contamination. We are in a boggy area and everything flows into this area.”

The Energy Resources Conservation Board is investigating the original pipeline rupture, says a spokesman.

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© Copyright (c) The Edmonton Journal

By Marty Klinkenberg, Edmonton Journal October 18, 2012

EDMONTON – The threat to Canada’s beef industry from E. coli was underscored this week when one of its biggest players was toppled in the wake of the largest meat recall in the nation’s history.

With its losses mounting, XL Foods of Edmonton announced plans Wednesday to sell its slaughterhouse in Brooks and other assets to a multinational giant for $45 million less than it paid just three years ago.

As part of the $100-million agreement, JBS USA has taken immediate control of the facility that was shut down by federal regulators on Sept. 27 due to contamination with E. coli. In addition, the company has an option to buy beef packing plants in Calgary, Nebraska and Idaho, as well as a feedlot in Brooks and adjacent farmland.

Experts say it is no surprise that XL’s owners, Edmonton-based Nilsson Bros., decided to sell in the face of a financial tsunami. In the last month, XL Foods had likely lost more than $100 million in recalled products alone, not to mention the cost of recalling them from across North America and Puerto Rico. It also faces possible litigation from 15 people who have contracted E. coli poisoning, and was likely to lose market share due to waning consumer confidence.

“Generally, recalls are small, isolated events, but some of them get bigger as they go and become very large events,” said Ted Schroeder, a research professor and livestock marketing analyst at Kansas State University. “When it happens, it often ends up in a major restructuring like this.

“A company the size of XL Foods can’t have a plant shut down and keep paying its debts. They are often forced to sell before they lose everything.”

Acquired in 2009, XL Foods’ packing house in Brooks was processing 40 per cent of Canada’s beef before its licence was suspended three weeks ago by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. Investigators are still assessing safety improvements that were ordered at the plant after E. traces of E. coli were detected in some of the 1,800 products recalled over the course of a month beginning on Sept. 16.

Although it is unclear how much Nilsson Bros. owes banks and other companies, Brian and Lee Nilsson had to dig deep to buy the now-shuttered packing house in Brooks.

To finance the purchase, a consortium of lenders headed by HSBC Bank Canada gave XL Foods a $225-million line of credit at an interest rate of 25 per cent. In addition, the Nilsson brothers used their 75,000-head feedlot operation and other lands near Brooks as collateral on an $18-million mortgage from Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. and a $20-million loan from the Bank of Nova Scotia, the latter at a rate of prime plus 10 percentage points.

“If this situation hadn’t occurred, XL Foods probably would have been fine,” Schroeder said. “But the company was expanding rapidly and because of that they were in a risky financial position. This became a real back breaker.”

Even before the biggest recall in Canadian history, the beef industry was paying a heavy cost due to E. coli. Recent studies done by researchers Kevin Grier and Claudia Schmidt at the George Morris Centre, an agricultural think-tank in Guelph, Ont., estimated that negative publicity generated by E. coli-related recalls costs cattle producers $100 million in lost sales a year.

That cost is above and beyond the cost of the recalls themselves, which become gradually more expensive based on scope and size. Recalling and then disposing products in a larger recall costs companies a minimum of $2 million, but complications in the XL Foods case would drive the cost dramatically higher.

In addition, demand and cattle future prices have been driven down by publicity generated by the recalls. At present, Grier estimates buyers are paying farmers in Alberta about less $50 per head than normal because feedlots are overcrowded and the closure of XL Foods’ plant has made it more difficult to find a processor.

“It has been very damaging when it comes to demand,” Grier said. “Every retailer I have spoken to tells me beef purchases are down 40 to 50 per cent. And during the height of the crisis, future process dropped dramatically.

“E. coli recalls scare traders, and that causes lower prices for the short term.”

The Morris Centre’s research shows that the beef packing industry spends more on E. coli prevention than on any other intervention — approximately $14.1 million each year. Those estimates do not include the cost of having to retool or clean a plant after multiple findings of E. coli bacteria, such as the case involving XL Foods.

Because of that the company incurred additional labour costs related to quality control and quality assurance, as well as lost production. Damage to its reputation threatened its long-term market share.

When it comes to selling, Grier said, “I would say that XL Foods certainly would not have found itself in a strong negotiating position. The pool of qualified buyers was one. The circumstances were pretty difficult.”

Union officials on Thursday met with representatives of JBS USA in an attempt to learn its immediate plans. All but a relative handful of the plant’s 2,200 workers have been temporarily laid off.

The cost of continuing to operate had become too difficult for the Nilsson Bros., who continued to pay employees for several weeks even after the plant’s licence to operate was suspended. In addition, the company has temporarily lost its privilege to export to the United States until an audit is conducted by the CFIA in conjunction with officials from the U.S. Food Safety Inspection Service.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has estimated that about 2.5 million pounds of beef products that had been exported were recalled. But that is just a fraction of the amount that has been pulled from store shelves across Canada.

Sheri Monk, a reporter for Alberta Farmer with extensive knowledge of the cattle industry, said Thursday that 16 million pounds is the bare minimum of beef products that XL Foods would have recalled. The company ended up having to recall everything it produced over five days — and was slaughtering 4,000 animals each day, with each carcass weighing an average of 800 pounds.

In addition, she estimates that 12 to 15 million pounds of detained meat was still in the plant at the time it was shut down, much of which will likely be lost. Retailers may have also returned another 10 to 15 million pounds of other products to XL Foods that were manufactured around those same dates, Monk said.

Using an average price of $3 per pound — an amount that Grier said is plausible — the cost to XL Foods could range from a low of $48 million to a high of $135 million.

“That’s simply the value of the product lost,” Schroeder said. “But the value of the product is only a fraction of their cost. Other costs often times are at least as large, if not more.

“You would quickly find yourself in a bad financial situation.”

A bigger problem to the company — and for the industry as a whole — is a loss of confidence from consumers.

“Consumers respond adversely to recalls,” Schroeder said. “They don’t necessarily associate it with the company as much as the product, which in this case means they are reducing their consumption of beef.

“This is broader than XL Foods and it is broader than Canada-wide. It is causing consumers in the U.S. to pause and think twice and step away from the product a bit, too.

“From a trust perspective, when there has been a regulatory issue, it takes time. In that case, sometimes having a new company come in and take ownership can restore that trust faster than anything else.”

With files from Calgary Herald

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© Copyright (c) The Edmonton Journal

By Matt McClure, Calgary Herald October 18, 2012

CALGARY — An embattled Alberta meat packer will soon be managed and possibly bought by the world’s largest animal protein processor.

Effective immediately, XL Foods Inc. has reached a deal with Brazilian-controlled JBS to operate its feedlots and processing plants, including the 4,000 head-a-day facility in Brooks that was shuttered recently by federal food inspectors due to an E. coli scare.

“We know full well the commitment it takes to manage world-class operations that produce safe and nutritious products,” Bill Rupp, president of JBS’s U.S. division, said in a news release.

“We believe our experienced team will provide an invaluable asset in the management of XL Lakeside and we look forward to to exploring our options to purchase XL assets in the near future.”

Under the deal, JBS has the exclusive option to buy the Lakeside plant, feedlot and farming operations in Brooks, plus packing facilities in Calgary, Omaha, Nebraska and Nampa, Idaho, for $100 million. Half the payment would be in cash and half in JBS shares.

“Under no scenario will JBS assume any of XL Foods’ debt or liabilities,” the company release said.

Federal Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz said in an e-mailed statement that the move wouldn’t affect the timetable or requirements for reopening the plant.

“While this is a private business decision, Canadian consumers can be assured the Canadian Food Inspection Agency will enforce the same rigorous food safety standards at the Lakeside facility regardless of the management,” Ritz said.

Officials with Nilsson Bros Inc., XL’s parent company, could not be reached immediately for comment, but a company insider said the firm had been hit hard by the recent closure of its Brooks plant and the country’s largest ever beef recall.

With sales of more than $30 billion a year, JBS S.A. became the world’s largest company in the beef sector with its 2007 acquisition of the U.S.-based Swift and Company.

South of the border, the firm operates eight cattle processing plants, one processed meat facility, a tannery and a dozen feedlots.

Workers at the Brooks plant were laid off again Wednesday as federal food inspectors analyzed test results from the processing of 5,000 carcasses to ensure contaminated product isn’t being produced.

CFIA said an assessment of those results — a necessary step before XL Foods Inc. can resume normal operations — won’t be completed until early next week.

About 800 of the facility’s 2,200 workers were recalled earlier this week to complete the deboning and cutting of carcasses that were left at the plant when it was shuttered Sept. 27 by CFIA officials.

Doug O’Halloran, president of the United Food and Commercial Workers local that represents most plant employees, said JBS’s arrival on the scene was a positive development.

“I’m not normally in favour of foreign control and ownership, but the Nilsson brothers were in over their heads,” O’Halloran said.

“They can go back to running their ranches now and leave the operation of this plant to someone who knows what they’re doing.”

While the union boss estimates the company has paid out $3 million in wages to workers during the shutdown, he is worried that if the current layoff drags on, some employees will leave for jobs elsewhere.

“Our big concern is that when it does reopen that there are enough inspectors with greater authority to stop or slow the line if they spot a problem,” O’Halloran said.

“The front-line people with CFIA need to have ability to exercise their judgment and err on the side of caution even if it means lost production.”

Brooks Mayor Martin Shields hopes the plant reopens quickly to ensure as many temporary workers as possible stay in the city.

“One unknown to us at this point is the sense of what is the transition time,” he said. “Hopefully through our social agencies, through our food bank, we can keep things stable and get as many people back to work.”

About one in six people in the southeastern Alberta city work at the meat packing plant.

Cathy Housdorff, press secretary for provincial agriculture minister Verlyn Olson, said it’s a nothing but good news for Alberta farmers.

Housdorff said Olson was on the phone with many of the affected parties Wednesday night, trying to find out more about JBS.

“We don’t know much about them at this point, so that’s one of the reasons he would like to have a conversation with them,” she said.

David Chalak, board chairman with the Alberta Livestock and Meat Agency, said the JBS deal was a positive development.

“JBS has a great reputation and certainly have a very strong and significant experience in the processing industry, and their involvement will be seen on the whole as a positive,” he said.

“It certainly alleviates some of the uncertainties around how this plant will move forward if and when it was recertified.”

In Ottawa, the New Democrats said they would introduce a motion Thursday calling for the resignation of Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz. They will also seek the reversal of cuts to CFIA’s budget and request the federal auditor general to investigate.

“Self-regulation doesn’t work,” NDP agriculture critic Malcolm Allen said in a news release.

“It’s that simple and we’ve seen its results.”

Public health officials have said 15 people in four provinces have now become ill from a strain of E. coli linked to product from the plant.

CFIA suspended the plant’s operating licence after repeated shipments of tainted meat were intercepted in early September at the U.S border and at a facility in Calgary.

An investigation found shortcomings in the Brooks facility that included a clogged carcass washer and insufficient analysis of test results to ensure contaminated lots were being diverted.

CFIA officials said in a release that they continue to maintain strict oversight of meat products from the plant being shipped for rendering, a high temperature disposal method.

“No products from this facility will enter the marketplace until the CFIA is fully confident that the plant’s food safety controls are working effectively,” the release said.

The agency did not immediately respond to questions about whether the company will be allowed to ship meat or beef trim currently in the plant to restaurants or retailers if it again tests negative for E. coli.

The discovery of tainted beef from the Brooks plant has resulted in the largest beef recall in Canadian history.

CFIA extended the recall of XL Foods products again late Tuesday to include additional brands sold under different product names in British Columbia and Alberta.

With files from Bryce Forbes, Calgary Herald.

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© Copyright (c) The Calgary Herald

By Keith Gerein, Edmonton Journal October 16, 2012

EDMONTON – Energy Minister Ken Hughes says he plans to release a major report on Alberta’s retail electricity market before the end of the year.

Hughes received the 390-page report in early September, but said he wants to make sure he and his department carefully review each of its 41 recommendations before letting the public see it. The release will include the government’s response to the report, which was conducted over the spring and summer by a task force known as the Retail Market Review Committee.

“The electricity industry is quite complex, and so we want to make sure we have a really good understanding of the recommendations before we bring it forward,” Hughes said Tuesday.

Hughes would not reveal any of the recommendations but hinted that at least some minor changes could be coming to the province’s deregulated market. The task force was commissioned before the spring election following outrage over a spike in power prices.

“This reflects a thoughtful look at the retail market and that’s a good thing,” Hughes said. “We have had it for more than a decade. It’s a good time to take a good, thoughtful look at it to see what’s working, and where there could be some improvements.”

But Liberal energy critic Kent Hehr said the minister has had plenty of time to review the document and should release it now.

“Minister Hughes might be a slow reader, but that report was in his hands on Sept. 5,” Hehr said in a statement. “By my math, that’s 41 days with a report that was said to have 41 recommendations. That’s ample time for a government department to read it over. At the very least they could let the rest of us take a look at it.”

Hehr noted a recent survey from Hydro-Quebec showed residents of Calgary and Edmonton pay some of the highest power prices in the country.

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© Copyright (c) The Edmonton Journal

By Marty Klinkenberg, Edmonton Journal October 14, 2012

EDMONTON – Cattle producers with crowded feedlots are growing more anxious each day that XL Foods’ slaughterhouse in southern Alberta is shut down.

“It’s a tough time of year for this to happen,” Travis Toews, past-president of the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association, said Sunday from his ranch west of Grande Prairie. “Cattle feeders are looking for bids for processing, and there is some backup.

“What we need more than anything is clarity or some expectation of hope, but with each and every day there is more uncertainty. It is a pretty significant issue for the industry right now.”

Cattle farmers who have been fattening up their animals were dealt another blow on Saturday when 2,000 plant workers were temporarily laid off by XL Foods. The company’s processing facility in Brooks has been idle since its licence was suspended by federal regulators on Sept. 27, but appeared to be on the verge of reopening.

On Sunday, the firm announced it is recalling approximately 800 workers to assist with a safety review being conducted by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. There is still no timetable for reopening the facility, which handled 40 per cent of Canada’s beef before its closure due to E. coli contamination.

“The sooner we have clarity about what is going to happen at the plant, the sooner everyone in the supply chain can make some adjustments,” Toews said. “Farmers can only hold cattle back for so long. They need to go to market at a certain point.

“If they are held on a feedlot too long, the cost becomes prohibitive, there are overweight issues and their value goes down.”

More than 1,800 beef products sold by XL Foods have been pulled from store shelves since Sept. 16 in what has become the biggest recall of meat in Canadian history. In addition, the company has temporarily lost its privilege to export to the United States, and faces legal action from some of the 15 people with related cases of E. coli poisoning.

Toews said cattle farmers that previously sent their herd to the Brooks slaughterhouse are now sending them to Cargill’s plant in High River, as well as to processing facilities in the U.S. Cargill, which already handles more beef than any other company in Canada, is looking at ways to increase production, including adding another shift, Toews said.

“We are seeing more cattle heading south and are having discussions with U.S. processors to identify their willingness and readiness to take on more product, but there are some challenges,” Toews said. “Before some facilities commit to taking on too much new product, they want to make sure there will be a large enough supply for a long enough time.”

On Saturday, Nilsson Bros., the Edmonton firm that owns XL Foods, blamed the layoffs on the uncertainty of when its processing plant would reopen. In response, the CFIA complained that the process of assessing the facility had become bogged down because of a lack of co-operation from XL Foods.

“That’s not a positive signal,” Toews said. “We are working in the interim to find other opportunities in terms of processing, but in the long term we have a critical need for the Brooks plant to be up and running.”

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© Copyright (c) The Edmonton Journal

Original source article: Alberta cattle producers anxious over XL Foods’ closure

By Bryan Weismiller, Calgary Herald October 14, 2012

BROOKS — Roughly 800 employees from the shuttered meat-packing plant in Brooks have been told to report to work on Tuesday.

The announcement comes one day after XL Foods Inc. officials temporarily laid off more than 80 per cent of the plant’s 2,400 employees and effectively aborted its bid to fully reopen the massive slaughterhouse.

Alberta Agriculture Minister Verlyn Olson told reporters in Brooks that “A shift” workers would be back at Lakeside Packers to finish processing the carcasses that federal inspectors had already cleared.

“The layoffs troubled us greatly because it could get in the way of the re-certification of the plant,” Olson said Sunday.

“XL tells us it’s a temporary layoff,” he said. “I’m taking them at their word.”

In a statement released Sunday, co-CEO Brian Nilsson said XL Foods looks “forward to actively working with the CFIA to bring this to a viable and timely resolution to allow the plant to recommence operations.”

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency had said Saturday that following the mass temporary layoff it was unable to finish reviewing the plant at the centre of an e. coli contamination scare that has sickened 15 and led to massive product recalls in Canada an the United States.

The agency had pulled XL’s operating on Sept. 27 after tainted beef was found at the U.S. border weeks earlier.

Meanwhile, Brooks Mayor Martin Sheilds said the town has been caught in a “private little feud” between XL Foods and federal food inspectors.

“We’ve been on the sidelines,” he said.

“Those guys out there— I would take them, put them all in a room, lock the door (and) say ‘get it sorted out.’ Because that’s how innocent bystanders are getting hurt.”

Since Sept. 16, more than 1,800 XL Foods products have been recalled across the country in what is now Canada’s largest beef recall.

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© Copyright (c) The Calgary Herald

Original source article: 800 employees heading back to XL Foods plant

By Darcy Henton, Calgary Herald October 15, 2012 6:37 AM

EDMONTON — Residents of Calgary and Edmonton still pay among the highest prices for electricity in the country, according to the annual Hydro Quebec power pricing survey.

The good news for consumers is the price, calculated on April 1, is a few cents lower than it was last year at the same time.

The bad news is the electricity price in Calgary and Edmonton has climbed two to three cents since April.

Calgary, which recorded the highest price in the nation last year, dropped to third highest and Edmonton dropped from second to fifth highest, in Hydro Quebec’s assessment.

The survey of 12 Canadian cities pegged electricity in Calgary at 14.5 cents per kilowatt-hour for the average household, down from 18 cents in 2011. Edmonton came in at 13.6 cents, down from 17 cents in 2011.

The price includes rate riders and local access fees that add to the kilowatt-hour cost in Alberta’s deregulated electricity market.

Halifax and Charlottetown, P.E.I., had the highest-priced residential electricity in the country on April 1 at 15 cents per kWh, according to the survey.

By comparison, the cost in the three cities with the lowest-priced electricity — Montreal, Winnipeg and Vancouver — ranged from seven to eight cents per kWh for an average home. Those cities are served by relatively inexpensive hydro power while the bulk of Alberta electricity is generated from coal or more expensive natural-gas-fired plants.

The survey also included 10 U.S. cities, where the cost of electricity ranged from a low of 7.6 cents in Seattle to highs of more than 23 cents in San Francisco and New York. When the U.S. cities are included, Alberta cities placed in the middle of the pack, with Calgary having the seventh-highest prices and Edmonton the ninth highest of the 22 cities in North America.

Alberta is the only jurisdiction in Canada with a fully deregulated market that sets the price hourly. Electricity is supplied from power plants constructed and financed by private investors.

Electricity consultant Sheldon Fulton said electricity costs for residential consumers are high in Alberta because of market volatility that can rocket the megawatt-hour price of electricity to as high as $999 per mWh when plants shut down unexpectedly.

“It’s either $40 or $300 depending on whether the wind is blowing or not,” he added.

He said the regulated rate that consumers pay if they haven’t signed a fixed-price contract is affected by that volatility to such a degree that one regulated rate provider has applied to the Alberta Utilities Commission for a larger profit margin to offset the risk.

If approved, that could boost residential electricity prices even higher, he said.

Alberta Energy commissioned a task force to review the retail electricity market prior to most recent provincial election to stem public outcry over spiking prices but has yet to release the 390-page report or act on any of its 41 recommendations.

“My guess is the committee has made recommendations that may be contradictory to current government policy, so I think what they are trying to do is figure out how do they make some changes,” Fulton said. “Quebec Hydro’s comparisons are correct. We do have the highest rates in the country, but what is the underlying root cause and how do you fix it?”

© Copyright (c) The Calgary Herald

By Kelly Cryderman, Calgary Herald October 13, 2012

The Alberta Court of Appeal has heard arguments on whether a $609-million power line deemed “critical” by the Alberta government should be put to a regulatory test of whether the project is in the public interest.

The legal arguments heard in a Calgary courtroom on Friday could have implications for the future approvals of billions of dollars in electricity transmission line projects the province says are crucial to Alberta’s continued economic growth.

However, critics say the projects are part of a massive overbuild and the costs will be borne in the years ahead by already-taxed Alberta residential and industrial electricity consumers.

Opponents to the Heartland Transmission Project – a line that will run to the industrial zone north of Edmonton – argued a provincial regulatory body erred because it only examined the 500-KV project route before green-lighting the project last year.

They say the Alberta Utilities Commission (AUC) also has the jurisdiction to look at whether the controversial project – which is in the early stages of construction – is good for the overall social and economic interests of the province.

“Everybody already is talking about their power bills, how they’ve increased. And it’s only just started,” Karen Shaw, whose family farm lies adjacent to the proposed Heartland line, said outside the courtroom.

However, the Heartland project proponents – AltaLink and Epcor – and the AUC itself also appeared before the Court of Appeal panel to say the commission was correct in its decision.

Epcor Distribution and Transmission Inc. lawyer Kim Wakefield said the Alberta legislature has crafted laws that reserve for itself the ability to determine the primary need and public interest of a project deemed “critical.”

“The AUC does not have the power to look at the public interest,” he told the court.

Three Court of Appeal judges said Friday they would reserve their decision. But Wakefield said outside of court the outcome of the case “will give guidance to the AUC in the future on the parameters of the its role” in critical transmission infrastructure applications.

The Shaw family’s lawyer, Keith Wilson, also said the outcome of the appeal could have an influence on the fate of two other major north-south transmission lines now being considered by the AUC, and other transmission projects the Alberta government has said are necessary.

In February 2009, the government passed Bill 50 and declared several transmission projects, including Heartland and the two north-south lines, as critical infrastructure needed to upgrade the power grid to meet growing demand for electricity.

But earlier this year, the Redford government said it would introduce legislation so that responsibility for considering the need for future transmission projects will be assigned to the AUC.

On Friday, Alberta Energy spokeswoman Janice Schroeder said in an email she wouldn’t comment on any potential legislation, or the Court of Appeal case.

“We are not prepared to debate the issues from the sidelines,” Schroeder said.

Wildrose MLA Joe Anglin voiced his support for the Shaw family appeal Friday, and said it’s imperative that Alberta Energy Minister Ken Hughes release a 390-page report from an independent committee which reviewed problems with Alberta power prices.

Hughes received the report last month, but said he would review its contents before responding.

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© Copyright (c) The Calgary Herald

Original source article: Court hears arguments on Heartland power line project

By Elise Stolte and Marty Klinkenberg, Edmonton Journal October 14, 2012 11:27 AM

EDMONTON – The president of the Alberta Federation of Labour lashed out at XL Foods’ owners after hearing that the company embroiled in the largest meat recall in Canadian history was laying off 2,000 employees at its packing house in Brooks.

On Saturday, XL Foods announced the temporary layoffs earlier in the day, citing the absence of a timeline for reopening its plant. The firm’s licence to operate was suspended by federal regulators on Sept. 27 after beef trimmings and ground meat from the processing facility tested positive for E. coli 0157: H7 multiple times.

The company had been working to implement safety improvements with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and appeared to be within a few days of resuming full operations when Brian Nilsson, the Edmonton-based company’s co-CEO, announced the sudden layoffs.

“I am surprised,” McGowan said by telephone from Quebec City. “It is hard not to see this as another ill-conceived decision by the owners of XL Foods.
“It is clear they were close to the point where the plant would reopen, so why would they take a risk that their employees would possibly leave town? There is a real risk that they might not have enough people to get the plant open even if they get a green light from the CFIA.

“It doesn’t make sense.”

The company’s problems began Sept. 3 when U.S. officials discovered E. coli 0157: H7 during a random inspection of beef trimmings at the Montana border. The following day, the CFIA came up with a positive test result for E. coli as well. Subsequently, 15 Canadians have become sick from the bacteria, and the company has lost its privileges to export to the U.S. as well.

More than 1,800 products have been pulled from store shelves across Canada and the U.S. since the first in a long list of recalls was made Sept. 16.

The CFIA had granted XL Foods a temporary licence to make safety improvements, but hasn’t provided a definitive timeline for reopening the plant.
“It is with deep regret we have announced the temporary layoff of 2,000 employees today,” Nilsson said in a news release, adding that workers had received full pay over the last three weeks. “It is this uncertainty that has forced the temporary layoffs.

“We look forward to actively working with the CFIA to bring this to a viable and timely resolution.”

The CFIA responded by issuing a statement of its own, blaming the company for the delay. The CFIA charged that it has been unable to complete a safety assessment because XL Foods stopped after cutting only about half as many carcasses as the agency needed to assess the plant’s E. coli monitoring capability.

“We have clearly outlined the steps and actions we require the company to take so that we can be sure that food safety controls in the plant are working effectively,” the CFIA said. “The speed at which XL Foods Inc. begins normal operations is solely dependent on their ability to demonstrate that they can produce safe food.

“At this time, we are unable to complete our assessment. We recognize the company wants to return to normal operations as soon as possible, but the CFIA has a responsibility to assure consumers that the plant can produce safe food.”

The agency said no products will be allowed on the market until it is confident that the plant’s food safety controls are working effectively. Beginning Monday, it has authorized some meat products currently under detention at the facility to be sent for rendering, a high-temperature disposal method. Shipments will be supervised, and none of the rendered material will be sold for food.

Provincial Agriculture Minister Verlyn Olson hosted a hastily assembled media conference on the steps of the legislature late Saturday afternoon. He’ll address reporters again Sunday afternoon in Brooks, where he’s meeting with Mayor Martin Shields and others affected by the XL layoffs.

“Our hope is this is a short-term setback,” Olson said Saturday, suggesting layoffs may have been triggered by a timeline spelled out in a collective agreement.

One out of every six people in Brooks works at the plant, and Olson said he spoke with both the Brooks mayor and federal Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz earlier in the day. Service Canada will be on-site Monday to help people apply for employment insurance.

Testing at the plant is going well, and results should be available Monday morning at the earliest, Olson said.

Other than that, the provincial government can only watch, since the CFIA is responsible for approving the reopening of the plant, he said.

“The ball is in XL’s court,” Olson said. “It’s not within our ability to step in and make CFIA do anything or make XL do anything. When I say we’re watching carefully, it means that we’re talking multiple times a day to the various players in their picture and encouraging them to do whatever is necessary.
“We are taking XL at its word that this is a temporary layoff.”

NDP Leader Brian Mason, who was also at the legislature, suggested things are worse than the government is letting on.

“It’s not a good move for XL Foods because they have many immigrants working in the plant who cannot afford to stay if they are not being paid. It’s always been a problem in that plant to find labour,” said Mason, who visited the facility during a 2005 strike and union organizing drive. “This layoff will mean people leave town and look for something else. That will create additional problems for XL.

“This is probably a more serious setback than the minister would have us believe. (The company) has some reason to believe this plant is going to be shut down for a while at least.”

“We are hopeful that the CFIA will bring this to a swift and viable resolution.”

Doug O’Halloran, president of the union that represents the plant’s workers, said they were informed of the layoffs Saturday afternoon during a meeting. They take effect immediately, he said, and it remains uncertain when workers will be back on the job.

“I’m as shocked as I’m sure the rest of the workers are,” O’Halloran said. “We’re just as caught off guard as everyone else. We’ll be helping people fill out for EI and trying to find jobs for them at some of the other plants and doing what we can to assist them.”

According to the union’s most recent contract, employees at the plant were due to receive wage increases on Nov. 1. Workers on the production line were to earn from $15.40 to $20.75 per hour, depending on experience, custodians would make between $10.35 and $17 per hour, maintenance workers would earn between $16.40 and $36.25 per hour, and employees working in rendering operations would make between $15.40 and $31.25 hourly.

McGowan, meanwhile, wondered if the layoffs were announced by XL Foods as a means of putting pressure on the CFIA to get the plant open more quickly.

“If they are playing chicken with the regulators, it’s a boneheaded move,” McGowan said. “I certainly hope the CFIA will only certify the plant once it is confident the company has completed all of the changes needed to assure public safety.

“I think we were literally days away from the plant reopening. This boggles the mind.”

A spokesperson for federal minister Ritz said the halt to operations was directly linked to the layoffs.

“Their decision to lay off workers results in them not being able to continue with the CFIA assessment,” Meagan Murdoch said in an email.

Ritz said his thoughts are with the workers and the community that are affected by the “private-sector business decision” by XL Foods. He said CFIA inspectors are working diligently to ensure all safety issues at the Brooks plant are corrected.

“Today’s news does not change our government’s commitment to ensuring safe food for Canadian consumers,” Ritz said in a statement.

With files from the Calgary Herald and The Canadian Press

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© Copyright (c) The Edmonton Journal

The Canadian Press October 12, 2012 5:22 PM

Two new cases of E. coli connected to the massive beef recall at the XL Foods plant in Alberta have been confirmed in British Columbia.

The B.C. Centre for Disease Control says the same strain of the bacteria was found by lab tests, bringing to three the number of people who’ve been sickened in B.C.

Health officials say the new cases were both in adults and all three people who were ill have either recovered or are recovering.

One of those sickened was visiting Canada from outside the country and ate beef in both Alberta and B.C.

The second person was diagnosed in the Fraser Health Authority in Metro Vancouver.

A man from Nanaimo was the first B.C. resident to come down with the same strain of E. coli identified in the XL Food Inc. food safety investigation that has prompted a massive beef recall across Canada.

The head of XL Foods Inc. apologized unequivocally Thursday to those who were sickened by eating tainted meat and vowed to “making sure this doesn’t happen again.”

He spoke just as the Canadian Food Inspection Agency announced the company was able to resume limited operations at its Brooks, Alta. facility. The CFIA suspended the plant’s licence on Sept. 27.

More to come…

© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun

Original source article: Two more E. coli cases in B.C. linked to XL Foods beef recall