The governments of Canada and Ontario are investing up to $4.4 million under the Sustainable Canadian Agricultural Partnership (Sustainable CAP) to help small businesses in the agri-food industry grow their businesses and enhance their food safety and traceability systems. This funding will support 90 projects across the province through Ontario's Food Safety and Growth Initiative, which helps protect workers and businesses by ensuring the industry can continue to thrive, respond to market and consumer demands and keep workers on the job.
"Our producers and processors work hard to make sure our food meets the highest standards for safety and quality," said federal Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food Heath MacDonald. "This great initiative is helping them adopt the latest technologies in traceability and food safety so they can respond to consumer demands, grow their operations, and put more money back into their pockets." Vision Greens Inc., in Welland, is receiving up to $75,000 to purchase and install water filtration systems that will treat the water reaching their plants and increase food safety.
"Ontario's agri-food industry produces world-class food products and our government is making investments to help local businesses grow their operations, create jobs and increase their exports," said Ontario Minister of Agriculture, Food and Agribusiness Trevor Jones. "The Food Safety and Growth Initiative will help Ontario to further increase and diversify our agri-food exports to new markets, while strengthening the long-term competitiveness and growth of our local agri-food champions during this time of economic uncertainty."
Under the initiative, eligible food processors, producers and service providers can receive up to $75,000 per project to improve food safety systems, adopt new food safety and traceability equipment, technologies and standards and provide related training to employees.
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