FREDERIC SERRE
The Advocate

A three-month-long deadlock between the City of Montreal and Sanimax, an animal carcass recovery plant that services the entire province, is holding the entire Quebec agri-food chain hostage, says the mayor of St. Hyacinthe, who sent a blistering letter to Quebec Premier François Legault, demanding an end to the dispute.

“The City of Montreal cannot continue to hold the entire agri-food chain hostage and compromise the economy of all regions of Quebec,” writes André Beauregard in a letter sent in early May to Legault and obtained by La Presse.

For Beauregard, whose city also has a Sanimax plant on its territory, the impasse is threatening more than 60,000 jobs in the province, he told La Presse.

“Despite the efforts of Sanimax, which has submitted solutions developed by experts taking into account the best available technologies, Montreal persists in refusing any consideration,” Beauregard said.

An agreement between Sanimax and Montreal Mayor Valerie Plante’s administration called for Sanimax to build a storage garage and air purification system in Montreal by 2025, along with a water treatment plant by 2027. Sanimax, however, says the city is dragging its feet in granting building permits, while Plante says the delays are due to Sanimax’s refusal to hand over documents needed to grant those permits.

“We all share the wish that the agreement signed by Sanimax, and that the Quebec government and the City of Montreal be respected, and we are cooperating fully in the mediation process under way to achieve this,” Plante said in a statement.

Meanwhile, the Legault government has been trying to put an end to the impasse, but without any success. Unless the conflict is resolved, the “consequences of a Sanimax closure in Montreal would be disastrous and immediate for slaughterhouses, but also for pork and poultry farmers who would no longer be able to sell their animals,” he said.

Sanimax specializes in agri-food rendering. It collects animal by-products from slaughterhouses and food-processing facilities, processes that material into products used in other industries — everything from dog food to tires and crayons. This process avoids tonnes of material being sent to landfills. Its Montreal plant in the east end of the city has about 250 employees.