Grand Falls mayor predicts lost Dr. Oetker jobs will be replaced quickly

As 180 employees ponderwhat they'll do when Dr. Oetker closes its Grand Falls-area pizza-making plant, the mayor is confident at least 50 newlocal jobs will turn up in time.

"It would not surprise me at all that by the time these folks are out of a job, something will pop up for them," Mayor MarcelDeschnes told Information Morning Fredericton.

"We are resilient."

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Citing a challenging retail food market, Dr.Oetkerhas announced that in May, it will close the plant in Saint-Andr, outsideGrand Falls, and move most of the productionto London, Ont. The rest will go to Lodi,N.J.

"It's just a business decision, one that is hard to swallow," Deschnessaid.

"There's never a good time to lose a job."

The company promised severance packages and a $4 million community fund to help with retraining and to soften the blow to the town.

Treasury Board President Roger Melanson described the job losses as a "very difficult situation for the Grand Falls area."

"It is unfortunate, we do want to help as much as we can, the employees being affected," he said.

Local politicians brainstorm solutions

Labour Minister Gilles LePage and local MLA Chuck Chiassonmet with community leaders on Wednesday to seehow government could help employees make the transition to other work.

"My department's focus is on the employees right now," LePagesaid after the meeting.

"What we're telling all employees is that we're here, we've got their back."

Chiassonsaid the groupdiscussed options for helping the affected employees find work, includingretraining and trying to attract new businesses to the area.

Community leaders are hopeful the town can overcome the setbackand "make lemonade out of this lemon we've been given," he said.

Ccile Van Zandijcke,Dr. Oetker's executive vice-president, said the company has startedmeeting with each employee individually to discuss what's needed to move forward.

In a small community, there's a lot of tweaking that needs to be done to get them back in the workforce.-MarcelDeschnes, mayor of Grand Falls

"At Dr. Oetker we are focused 100 per cent on our employees at Grand Falls," she said.

VanZandijcke said preliminary discussions with Mayor Deschnes and provincial and federal officials were also held.

"All of these conversations have been co-operative and productive and we look forward to continuing this important work."

Grand Falls and Saint-Andr sit in a region between Edmundston and Woodstock that has shown the lowest unemployment rate in the province in recent months, according to Statistics Canada.

Deschnessaid he is going to do everything possible to get the Dr. Oetker employees back in the workforce after the closure.

"These are people that I've known for years that have been working there," he said. "They contribute to our economy."

Getting back into the workforce

He said he's already been in touch withan employer in the area who will need about50additional workers in the spring. Hewouldnot identify the company but said a list of jobs will be coming out.

About20 per cent ofDr.Oetker's workforce in Grand Falls ison the vergeof retirement, Deschnessaid.

The planned closure has nothing to do with the quality of the product coming out of Grand Falls but with the competitive conditions in the industry, he said.

"They had to invest quite a bit of money in their equipment at the end of the day they felt it was better to invest in their London plant than do so in the Grand Falls plant."

In itsannouncement of the closure, the company said the retail food climate has become "increasingly challenging" in recent years in terms of price and costs.

Dr. Oetker had worldwide sales of $3 billion in 2016, according to its website.

"In a small community, there's a lot of tweaking that needs to be done to get them back in the workforce,"Deschnessaid.

"My heart goes out to all the employees and their families."