What’s the deal?
Posted Oct 25, 2011 05:39:15 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Maple Leaf Foods’ decision to close several Canadian facilities, including the one on Courtland Avenue in Kitchener, and build a new facility in Hamilton, will come under the microscope of Kitchener’s legal department.
Kitchener City Councillor John Gazzola tells 570 News he hopes there wasn’t a bonus involved, but that he has his suspicions, “I just want to make sure that was the case. It’s a pretty serious issue for the citizens of Kitchener and I can’t quite understand why we wouldn’t come out quite well if it were a level playing field.”
With the review, Gazzola says depending on what the legal team finds, he’s interested to see what’s involved with the law and if it really does have teeth, “this law has always been there, we’re always warned about it and I just wanted to make sure that yes in fact, in this case, it was a level playing field for all the communities that were in the running.”
Gazzola says he’s not sure how long it will take for the city’s legal department to investigate the deal.
Over the weekend, 570 News told you about a report in the Hamilton Spectator that said Hamilton city staff worked for months putting in place the elements necessary to land Maple Leaf Foods.
It said the work was done in secrecy with Hamilton city council not learning about it until just last week.
The closure of the Kitchener plant in 2014 will cost 1,200 people their jobs.
