To quote Charles Dickens, "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times."
Riding a high after Tuesday's official announcement that a Lloydminster heavy oil manufacturer is moving its operations into the former Peak Manufacturing plant, the Battlefords were immediately whacked back into reality by Wednesday's announcement that the Maple Leaf Foods bacon plant, a pillar of the community's manufacturing sector for 25 years, will close in the first half of 2013.
City officials are now scrambling to find a replacement operation for the plant. Its closure will result in 330 jobs directly related to the plant leaving the Battlefords, but the economic impact will reach far beyond that.
Most drastically effected will be the community's large immigrant population. Many of these people came specifically to work at the bacon plant and it is doubtful many have the resources to pull up stakes and follow their jobs to Saskatoon or Winnipeg, where the cost of living is higher.
Unfortunately the new jobs offered by Grit Industries, the entity taking over the Peak Manufacturing location, are more highly skilled than those offered by Maple Leaf.
It is clear there will be no turning back the decision to close the bacon plant. What remains is for municipal officials and prospective manufacturers to work closely together to have a replacement operation in place to replace the jobs lost.
Otherwise the impact, while not coming for over a year, will have a ripple effect that will be felt in all aspects of the local economy.
