BOLTON, ONTARIO — A $1.5-million investment in Holly Park Meat Packers is being made through the government of Canada's Slaughter Improvement Program, David Tilson, Member of Parliament (Dufferin-Caledon), announced.

"Investing in Holly Park Meat Packers will help increase their slaughter capacity, cut costs and improve operations making the industry more profitable and competitive," Mr. Tilson said. "This is one more way that Canada's Economic Action plan is strengthening the Canadian economy, helping the meat packing and processing sector and investing in the riding of Dufferin-Caledon."

Holly Park Meat Packers was founded in 1979 and is one of Ontario's largest provincially inspected meat processing facilities. It employs 100 people at its Cookstown and Caledon locations. This federal investment will allow Holly Park to redesign its facility and purchase and install new equipment and technology, giving producers the opportunity to access niche markets. This investment will also be used to develop and implement training of new procedures required to become a federally inspected facility.

Canada's $50-million Slaughter Improvement Program makes federal loans available to support sound business plans aimed at reducing costs, increasing revenues and improving operations of red-meat packing and processing operations in Canada. Last month's budget provided an additional $10 million for the program.

With more than $20 billion in sales, the red-meat industry is the single largest employer in the food industry in Canada.