Elected officials, MRC staff and cooperative members took a tour of the abattoir in Shawville back in December to get an update on the re-launch of the facility as it comes closer to opening its doors. 

The MRC put up $1.6 million from various funding envelopes to purchase the facility in May 2024 after the previous operation went bankrupt. The original abattoir project was launched in 2018, costing $3.4 million. According to THE EQUITY’s reporting at the time, nearly $900,000 of this amount was put up by the owners, and the rest came from various loans and government grants. 

The MRC’s overall AgriSaveur project, as it is known, includes the abattoir facility, a boutique for local products soon to be built at the facility, as well as a commercial kitchen at a different location. 

AgriSaveur project manager Maryse Vallières-Murray explained that the abattoir is nearly ready to receive inspectors from the provincial ministry of agriculture and food (MAPAQ).

“So, currently we’re still working in the abattoir, all the work should be done in February,” she said. “After that, we’ll have the MAPAQ inspectors come in and the opening will depend on if they give us a permit or if we have some adjustments to do.  But if everything is ok, which is what we’re hopeful for, we should be able to start some testing very soon.”

Once approved, she said that members of the co-op will be using their animals to test out the processes, and train up new staff before opening up the reservation list. 

She said that last year they discovered severe water damage in the building and also needed to make repairs to the refrigeration system, for which an additional grant of just over $350,000 was approved at the MRC council’s September meeting, just prior to the municipal elections. 

“It was something like 3,000 sq. ft. of wall we had to take down and rebuild,” she said. “Also [ . . . ]  all the refrigeration system, a lot of maintenance in there, some compressors needed to be changed. So yeah, there was a lot of work to do there.”

At the September meeting, the mayors also signed what is known as an emphyteutic agreement (similar to a lease) with the cooperative that will run the facility, requiring the co-op to handle all maintenance and upkeep, with no rent. At the end of the 30-year period, all assets will belong to the MRC. 

Vallières-Murray said that in addition to FRR funding from the MRC, they had also received $250,000 funding through the ESBO, a regional fund for agri-food projects, which was used to purchase new equipment for the abattoir, including a meat grinder and saw. That fund also covered some of the equipment purchased for the commercial kitchen facility. 

An additional $80,000 was also secured through FRR component one last year to hire key resources for the abattoir project. Vallières-Murray said that a good chunk was earmarked for hiring a general manager, but some was spent on experts to consult on the re-opening.

“Running an abattoir, you have a lot of laws to respect, a lot of things to put in place, so we hired some experts to help us, just to get our MAPAQ permits,” she said. “We need to have protocols in place, specifically for animal welfare, but also all the cleaning protocols, we need to write them and have them ready for when we open. We’ve been working with experts to help us write and make sure all those protocols are ok with MAPAQ’s norms.” 

The project also received a $50,000 grant from the MAPAQ to renovate the abattoir’s storefront so it could be used for selling local products. 

Vallières-Murray said that they were also close to opening the kitchen facility, located across town at 107 West Street. She pointed out that they had to upgrade the hydro connection for the facility to handle some of the new equipment they added, but there was a six-month gap from when their request was made to when the work was completed. 

“The owner paid for all that, the new panels and everything. But after that, it was too much power for what was there for [Hydro-Quebec] . . . I believe they had to change three posts and a transformer,” she said. “The demand was [submitted] in May last year and we just got plugged in in November.”

Despite the delay, she and MRC economic development officer for agriculture Shanna Armstrong were able to receive training on some of the more sophisticated tools, such as the oven and freeze-drying equipment, in order to be able to help clients. 

Vallières-Murray said they were still finalizing the online booking site for the kitchen to be ready for the launch in the coming weeks. 

She added that while the project has seen its ups and downs over the last two years, setting up a commercial food cooperative was an enormous undertaking. 

“We don’t just turn on the lights. It’s a new business, it’s a co-op, it’s a community project, there’s a lot of things to put in place,” she said. “But we’re really going in the right direction with this.”