Unlicensed slaughterhouse hit with record-setting fine

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 18/07/2020 (1909 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

AN unlicensed slaughterhouse has been slapped with the highest food health-related fine ever issued in this province.

Robert’s Farm, at 51073 Road 8 East in the RM of Macdonald, was fined $25,000 earlier this year after being found operating without a permit, operating under insanitary conditions, and disobeying a health hazard order. The convictions cover operations from Sept. 12, 2016, to Oct. 19, 2017.

It’s not the first time Robert’s Farm has been hit with a fine.

In 2016, the farm was shut down by health inspectors and was later fined $7,500 for operating a slaughterhouse and processing meat without a permit.

A provincial spokeswoman said “education and permit application instructions were provided” and Manitoba Agriculture, which investigated the matter along with health inspectors, has no further comment on the matter.

A spokesperson for Robert’s Farm could not be reached for comment.

Mike LeBlanc, a veteran health inspector and manager of the province’s health protection unit, wouldn’t comment on Robert’s Farm, but said “that’s by far the highest fine I’ve ever seen… It’s the largest fine we’ve ever seen to a food establishment in Manitoba.”

Meanwhile, LeBlanc said that after a few weeks of not inspecting restaurant kitchens due to COVID-19 restrictions that prevented indoor dining, inspectors are again looking for health violations.

And while LeBlanc said inspectors have ordered a few restaurants to close while they brought themselves back up to proper health protocols, overall the industry didn’t let health standards slip during the weeks of no inspections while shutdowns connected to COVID-19 were in place.

“Everything is OK,” LeBlanc said. “It’s not like all hell went loose when we stopped.”

LeBlanc said the inspectors are doing a combination of checking for insanitary conditions while also making sure restaurants are following the special measures ordered by the province to prevent the spread of coronavirus, including having tables at least two metres from each other.

“At a certain point we stopped inspecting because restaurants stopped having indoor (patrons),” he said.

“We were getting many complaints about places like nail salons open when they shouldn’t have been. Then, in early May, when restaurants could have 50 per cent of their patrons on patios, that’s when we went back to regular work.”

Shaun Jeffrey, executive director of the Manitoba Restaurant Foodservices Association, said restaurant owners were committed to keeping their establishments clean.

“In the end, we all want to make sure our staff and patrons are safe,” Jeffrey said.

“From Day 1 (during the pandemic) we’ve been taking steps to make sure everybody is safe.”

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca

wfppdf:https://wfpquantum.s3.amazonaws.com/pdf/2020/73451_20200715convictions.pdf|Establishment convictions:wfppdf

 

wfppdf:https://wfpquantum.s3.amazonaws.com/pdf/2020/92317_20200715closures.pdf|Establishment closures:wfppdf