While the federal government was taking criticism for cutting funding for emergency response training and equipment in the wake of the disastrous collapse of a shopping-mall roof in Elliot Lake, one of the Conservative MPs announced the feds have $240,000 for a modest food-processing company in Mississauga.
I don't blame S. Gumpert Co. of Canada for asking for the money, but Harper government priorities seem strange.
Gumpert,
which employs 35 people, makes toppings, glazes, icings, baked goods, cereal
cake mixes, flavourings, extracts, sauces and fruit and berry pie fillings.
The federal funds are to help it install new packaging equipment.
Gumpert has been in business since the 1930s and, according to internet information, has annual sales of between $5 and $10 million and exports of less than
$100,000 a year.
The
federal money is from its Agricultural Flexibility Fund (AgriFlexibility)
through the AgriProcessing Initiative, a five-year, up to $50-million
initiative designed to enhance the competitiveness of the agri-processing
sector in Canada.
Wladyslaw
Lizon, Conservative MP for Mississauga East–Cooksville, made the announcement
at the Gumpert plant today.
