Thank you.
Good morning.
In my role as economic development officer for the City of Brandon, I've worked closely with Maple Leaf Foods for the past ten years. I am pleased to be able to speak to the collaborative relationship that has developed over time between Maple Leaf Foods, the municipal government, and the community as a whole and how this has benefited Brandon and area.
When Maple Leaf Foods confirmed Brandon would be home to a new state-of-the-art pork processing facility in late 1997, company and city officials promised to work closely to ensure maximum benefit and minimum impact of the new facility. Within two months of Maple Leaf Foods' selecting Brandon, a series of jointly hosted regional town hall meetings were organized and underway.
This early and continued commitment to community engagement has minimized negative impacts often associated with growth and cultural diversification. Community engagement has been achieved through a variety of methods.
Recognizing time limitations, I will only touch on a few ways in which we have maintained open dialogue and involvement with the community. It is critical, though, to understand that none of the items referenced hereafter would be possible without the open and collaborative relationship that exists between the City of Brandon, Maple Leaf, and community participation.
A socio-economic impact model was commissioned to help the community understand and prepare for the impact of Maple Leaf Foods. Regular updates have been completed over the years, and ail reports are available online.
The need for labour from outside our region and likely from outside the country was identified very early in the process. A housing supply-and-demand analysis based on Maple Leaf projections is conducted annually and is available online.
The City of Brandon maintains a chronological accounting of the Maple Leaf project online, including important projections related to foreign worker recruitment. In 2006, the City of Brandon and Maple Leaf Foods met personally with well over 40 local organizations to gain an understanding of the impacts created by the arrival of foreign workers to date and to seek input on solutions to mitigate future impacts.
The information gleaned was used to proactively plan for the addition of the second shift and the arrival of additional foreign workers.
In 2007, a committee focused on the proactive planning and coordination of immigrant settlement services was established, of which I am the chairperson. The committee is fortunate to comprise diverse community members, including immigrants who have recently arrived and those who have been in the area for multiple years.
A database of organizations and individuals who wish to receive regular updates on the foreign workers destined for Brandon and the second shift expansion was established by the City of Brandon. This distribution list continues to grow. At a minimum, quarterly updates, including statistics, projections, and educational pieces, are distributed.
Maple Leaf established and dedicated staff to community liaison committees around the topics of transportation, child care, housing, education, health, language, and community settlement. This ensures community engagement at the service delivery level and assists with identifying trends and planning for and resolving situations before they become issues.
Maple Leaf has welcomed community participation and input into their foreign worker orientation sessions, and Maple Leaf has also been kind enough to share their orientation package, so that it can serve as a template for a community-wide orientation package.
The City of Brandon actively participates in service provider meetings throughout the community to ensure regular and timely sharing of information. In this capacity, city staff often act as a neutral communication bridge between Maple Leaf and the community.
Maple Leaf and the City of Brandon are actively participating in a Rural Development Institute research project around the topic of temporary foreign workers. The project is proving to be an extremely valuable stakeholder educational tool.
As Rory mentioned earlier, the settlement of foreign workers and their family members over the past three years has brought challenges and learnings to Maple Leaf, the municipal government, and the community. It has also brought great rewards; thus I would be remiss in not briefly touching on a few of the benefits.
Maple Leaf Pork has been ranked the most important economic development project for Brandon for the past three years in an annual business leader survey.
Maple Leaf has acted as the catalyst for population growth in Brandon. For the first time in years, and bucking the national trend, Brandon's school enrolment numbers increased in 2007.
In a recent statistically representative survey of local residents, 68% of Brandon's residents felt that the increase in immigrants arriving in Brandon in the past few years has made Brandon a more interesting and culturally enriched community, and 22% felt that there had been no impact. I believe this speaks clearly to the efforts that have gone into community engagement on the topic of foreign workers.
The increased number of immigrants arriving in Brandon have finally provided the critical mass to enable Brandon to be funded as a true immigrant settlement centre.
I thank you for the opportunity to share the Brandon perspective and strongly encourage you to develop policy that enables rather than hinders industry's ability to utilize foreign labour. The area has benefited greatly from the enriched cultural fabric, additions to the labour pool through the arrival of family members, increased school enrolment, and of course the resulting economic growth. Brandon and area would suffer irreparable harm should Maple Leaf Foods be unable to source the necessary labour pool, thus jeopardizing the continuation of their Brandon operations.
Thank you.