K.C. Jordan, LJI Journalist

The group of local producers who this spring collaborated with the MRC to save the Shawville abattoir have formed the co-operative that will run the facility going forward.

The Coopérative de solidarité Agrisaveur du Pontiac, which became officially registered as a non-profit on July 30, consists of six agricultural producers from MRC Pontiac and three from MRC des Collines.
In mid-August, the group held a meeting to name its executive members by way of a vote.

Bristol beef producer William Armitage was elected president of the new co-op. The three other executive members are vice-president Kyle Kidder, secretary Roger St-Cyr and treasurer Ben Younge.

He said the members are excited at the opportunity to bring back this essential service to the Pontiac.

When he and the eight other local producers saw the abattoir go up for foreclosure in February, they saw a perfect opportunity to keep the abattoir in the area.

“As a group of local producers, when we heard about the possible closure of the local slaughterhouse in Shawville, we came together with a common goal to preserve a much needed local service,” stated a press release from the co-operative, sent to THE EQUITY on Monday.

Armitage said the return of the abattoir to the Pontiac is going to have a huge impact for local producers. 

“There’s tons of great potential that the slaughterhouse has. It’s local and producers don’t have to go too far.”

The nearest abattoir in Quebec right now is in Thurso, an hour and a half away from Shawville. In addition to paying someone else to cut their beef, producers have to pay for the gas back and forth from the Thurso facility.

Roger St-Cyr, a local producer and secretary of the co-op, said the Thurso facility has a year wait time right now for appointments.

“Thurso is the only facility left in the area and they are overbooked,” he said.

Now, producers will once again have an abattoir in the Pontiac, which helps to keep costs down.

“Having the abattoir here is huge to help that bottleneck,” said Armitage.

They are confident that the abattoir will attract business from outside the MRC Pontiac, given the high demand for abattoir services.

St-Cyr also highlighted the fact that the abattoir brings jobs to the area, adding that the abattoir at one point had more than 10 employees on site.

The MRC currently owns the assets to the abattoir, which it purchased in May using provincial funding designated for its AgriSaveur food transformation project.

Now, the MRC intends for the abattoir facility to operate under the AgriSaveur umbrella. In addition to slaughtering and butchering animals, the facility will eventually also help local producers add value to their products, such as making sausage from meat or making jam from fruit.

Armitage was grateful the MRC was willing to collaborate on this project.

“We wouldn’t be able to even talk about this business without the support of the MRC,” he said.
St-Cyr was especially happy about the MRC’s involvement, given the alternative of building a new abattoir entirely.

“If we had built a new abattoir, it would make the budgeting pretty hard.”

There are several things that must be done before the abattoir can be opened. The co-op must meet with the MRC to discuss a lease, and to buy back the slaughterhouse equipment the MRC purchased in May.

According to the press release, the co-op is taking steps toward getting the proper permits to operate the facility.

“We are currently collaborating with MAPAQ in their process for permitting the Shawville facility.”

The co-op must also begin hiring staff, and according to Armitage there are some former abattoir employees who are interested in returning to work.

In addition to seats for nine producers, the co-op has a seat for one employee member and a seat for one MRC support member.

At last Wednesday’s MRC Council of Mayors meeting, director general Kim Lesage was appointed as the support person for the AgriSaveur co-op.

“I have a vote at the table, however I’m not a member that is going to be using the services,” said Lesage in conversation with THE EQUITY last week.

Lesage also said the MRC Pontiac has hired someone to take on the AgriSaveur file, and that it will announce who that person is in the coming weeks.

Armitage said the co-op wants to support the next generation of farmers, too. He and a few other members will be at the Shawville Fair this weekend to announce their decision to donate two spots at the abattoir to cut and wrap a cow and a lamb. All proceeds from those animals will go back into the 4-H club. 

“We’re all producers, and at one point our passion started not just on the family farm, but through the 4-H,” he said.

“Those kids, [ . . . ] they need to know that we support them.”

Armitage isn’t sure when exactly the abattoir will be back up and running, but he said now that the co-op is registered with the province, things can start moving faster.

He said they are working tirelessly to make this happen, and that he hopes they can be open sometime in the fall.

“I’ve been working from five or six in the morning to sometimes ten or 11,” he said, between his farm work and now the abattoir work on top of it.

He said they are looking for more members to join the co-op, as well as qualified candidates to work at the abattoir. If anyone is interested, they can get in touch with him at (613) 795-5083 or armohrfarm@gmail.com.