QUEEN’S PARK – Tim Hudak, MPP for Niagara West-Glanbrook, called on the Minister of Economic Development and Trade (MEDT) in the Legislature yesterday to help Niagara tender fruit growers and CanGro plant workers following the Province’s botched effort to negotiate a deal to save the plant from closing.

“I don’t know if we’ll ever find out exactly why the McGuinty government chose to let this deal collapse and see the plant close down,” Hudak said, “but it brought up the very frustrating image of the minister in China cutting a ribbon, while pink slips were being handed out to workers in Niagara.”

In response to a question from Hudak in the Legislature last week, MEDT Minister Sandra Pupatello claimed “we were at the table, making the offers” and charged that it was the CanGro executives who were uninterested in making a deal. Two bids to purchase the CanGro plant were placed on the table following the announcement in January that CanGro was to close its St. Davids tender fruit cannery. However, bid “approval from the province never came and CanGro management walked away” from the negotiating table (St. Catharines Standard, April 29, 2008).

Hudak asked Minister Pupatello in the House yesterday to clarify what offers, if any, the McGuinty government actually made, as the bidders appear to believe it was the Province that failed to come through.

The closure directly affects about 150 tender fruit growers and about 2,000 acres of fertile Greenbelt farmland. More than 100 CanGro plant workers will also lose their jobs when the plant’s final canning projects are completed in June. While the federal government promised $22 million in funding in February to help the growers directly affected by the CanGro closure, the Province has not come forward with any specific funds to date.

“Minister, now with the plant closing, with trees being pulled out of the ground, what are you going to do today to help Niagara tender fruit growers and the 100 displaced workers?” Hudak asked.

Watch video of Tim Hudak’s question in the Legislature on CanGro by clicking here.