The Rural Voice, 1993-01, Page 29consumer assurance of
the quality inside.
The dangers of free
trade helped bring the
wine industry together to
work in a united way to
get back Canadian
markets, Hunt said.
Hillebrand has 35
acres of its own vine-
yards and buys from
farmers in the area. It
sells its wines through 45
retail stores in Ontario,
generally in high-end
market locations. Some
shops are integrated into
delicat-essens. Personnel
are trained to give top
service.
The company also gives tours of
the winery to 100,000 people a year.
In addition about five per cent of its
sales are exported to Japan, England,
the U.S., Austria, Switzerland and
Russia. Sales have grown from 6000
cases (12 bottles each) of its first
vintage in 1982 to 270,000 cases in
1992.
Elmer Buchanan: innovative loan plan promised.
from having to provide all its own
water supply and its own waste
management to having to train staff
for instance English as a second
language for the large proportion of
the staff who are recent immigrants.
Earl Shea, director of marketing
for Cold Spring Farm in
Thamesford, told of the
phenomenal growth of the turkey -
producing and packing giant from a
single 100 acre farm in the late
1940's to an operation with units in
Ontario, Michigan and Florida.
Today the company has its own
processing plants for turkey and
hogs, a large cold storage facility, a
feed plant, a protein recovery plant
for slaughter wastes, a new soybean
plant, a fabricating and construction
operation and a hatchery that
produces 5-8 million poults a year for
its own operation or for sale to
domestic or export markets. There
are 80 farm units, each operated by
farm managers concerned with only
the animal aspects of farm
management. The company raises
and processes 1.5 million turkeys a
year, producing more than 25 million
pounds of turkey, either as whole
turkey, or as turkey parts that are sold
to further processors. The company
also processes 2000-4000 hogs a
week.
Operating such a large company
(Cold Spring employs 550 people) in
a rural area has its own problems
There were success stories too
from rural community
development such as the town
of Winkler Manitoba which has
grown from 2500 population in 1967
to 6400 today and gone from two
agriculturally related industries in
1967 to 36 industries providing 3500
jobs today. The move came after
representatives from all aspects of the
community were called together in
1967 to come up with a plan to
diversify the economy and halt the
exodus of high school graduates.
Much of the growth has come from
finding ways to encourage and
promote budding local entrepreneurs
with good ideas. On one day in 1972
there were sod -turnings or openings
of 18 industries in the southern -
Manitoba town.
But the conference underlined
the problems facing the future
of rural communities. Peter
Apedaile of the University of Alberta
pointed out that the natural resource
bases of fishing, mining, forestry and
agriculture have been declining and
"it's darn hard to replace this
economic base". There has been a
substantial impoverishment of rural
areas with different standards of
public services like health, he said.
As the rural economy declines, the
tax base declines making it harder for
local governments to provide the
level of services by comparison to
what urban people get.
Ray Bollman of Statistics Canada
said there is some good news in the
statistics that show rural
manufacturing is actually gaining by
comparison to the fast -declining
urban manufacturing. However trends
after recessions show that
manufacturing production increases
faster than employment from
manufacturing. Manufacturing is
more important for the jobs created
around it in service businesses.
Jack Stabler of the University of
Saskatchewan says rural areas arc
becoming dependent on goods
production while the largest growth is
in the service sector. Those service
jobs that are located in rural areas arc
generally low tech, low skill, low
paying jobs while the urban areas get
the high skill, high income jobs.
Bill Reimer, a sociologist from
Concordia University said places
where people meet (schools, arenas,
general stores, etc.) have created the
social networks that have been an
important resource to rural areas. But
since World War II there has been a
centralization of these services, in
areas such as health, by senior
governments. Now that governments
find themselves under pressure to
spend less, rural people are especially
vulnerable to cutbacks in services.
Social networks may be the way
rural communities can counteract
current centralizing trends. Those
social networks of family, friends and
neighbours can be the basis for an
entrepreneurial spirit to help
revitalize communities.
Agriculture and Food Minister
Elmer Buchanan was speaker at the
final luncheon of the conference. He
said the Ontario government's efforts
at rural renewal arc based on the
principles of self-reliance, innovation
and partnerships. He outlined
programs such as the Ten Steps to
Community Action program to
develop rural leadership skills and
pilot programs in places such as the
Milverton-Mornington arca of Perth
county and in Huron county. He also
promised an innovative rural loan
pool program to help invest rural
money in rural development.0
JANUARY 1993 25