Morinville’s Champion Petfoods is out $60,000 now that town council has decided to punish the firm for its stinky smells.
Town council voted unanimously Tuesday night to withdraw a $60,000 tax break that had been offered to Champion Petfoods to offset the cost of the company’s smell reduction efforts.
Council had offered Champion the tax break in 2009 (payable over four years) if it successfully reduced the smells coming from its plant by 80 per cent. Mayor Lloyd Bertschi said the offer was meant to offset the cost of the $500,000 plasma injector the company installed to roast stinky particles out of the plant’s exhaust. Since the injector didn’t work, the company did not receive the break.
Champion was supposed to have its smell fix in place this summer, but that got pushed to November after a consultant found additional problems with the plant. Late last month, it announced that the fix had been pushed back to next spring. That delay prompted council to take back its tax break, Bertschi said.
“The gloves are off. It has now cost them $60,000.”
Coun. Paul Krauskopf criticized Champion for not telling council of this delay sooner. “A lot of this stuff they could have told us in August,” he said, referring to a council tour of the plant held that month. Although the company was working to solve this complex problem, he said it was inappropriate for council to leave this reward on the table.
Coun. Gordon Boddez said this is not a simple problem for Champion and company president Frank Burdzy has “stepped out on a limb” with his commitment to spend $3 million solving it.
“If they are successful, this is a wonderful thing for this community.”
But it’s also a problem that’s been around since October 2010, Coun. David Pattison said. This company has not lived up to the town’s expectations, which makes withdrawing this award appropriate.
This was council’s way of responding to the complaints of residents, said Coun. Lisa Holmes, who made the initial motion. She encouraged residents to keep up the pressure on Champion to get this smell problem solved.
Burdzy said he was taken off-guard by council’s decision, which he learned of through the news media. While council had talked about penalizing the plant in the past, it had never discussed pulling this break off the table.
“We’ve demonstrated significant commitment to this process,” he said, and the company laid out that commitment in a recent press release. “Yes, there have been delays … but on the other hand there’s also been progress.”
Questions on Champion should go to 1-855-784-0340.
