CALGARY
Lilydale chicken plant to fly the coop out of Ramsay

The impetus for the relocation came alongside planning for the Green Line LRT, which is slated to have a stop between Ramsay and Inglewood

Author of the article: Jason Herring
Publishing date: Nov 14, 2021 •

The Lilydale plant, owned by Sofina Foods Inc., located in the SE. Photo taken on Thursday, April 23, 2020. 

PHOTO BY BRENDAN MILLER/POSTMEDIA

Calgary’s inner-city community of Ramsay is saying farewell to a chicken plant that’s been there for the better part of a century, and the city councillor representing the area couldn’t be happier.

Gian-Carlo Carra said the Lilydale plant flying the coop from its current home at the corner of 21st Avenue and 11th Street S.E. to the Dufferin North Industrial Park is good news for Ramsay residents.

“I spent almost 10 years figuring out how we could possibly get Lilydale moved out of their archaic, falling-apart, bad-for-the–neighbourhood, bad-for-the-environment space,” said Carra, councillor for Ward 9.

“The big question was, how do we get them to move?”

The impetus for the relocation came alongside planning for the Green Line LRT, which is slated to have a stop between Ramsay and Inglewood. The city bought out the factory, Carra said, then sold the company land for their new home.

At 304,000 square feet, that new facility, which the provincial government has said cost $200 million, is a significant upgrade over the Ramsay site and comes with a 50 per cent increase in plant capacity. An existing 500 jobs will be transferred to the site and 50 new jobs will be created.

In a statement from Sofina Foods, which owns Lilydale, the company said it is currently in the process of transitioning to the new manufacturing facility in the city’s southeast, expecting to be done in early 2022.

“We are excited about the move to our new facility and look forward to transitioning our current employees over to the new site as they continue their important work feeding Canadians,” Sofina Foods said.

Conversations around finding a new home for the poultry plant date back decades, to Joe Ceci’s time as Ward 9 alderman in the 1990s and 2000s. Back then, it was owned by Pinecrest Foods, and a deal couldn’t be reached for a move.

Ceci said he’s pleased to see the departure of a community mainstay that had already long outstayed its welcome even at that time.

“Over time, the impact was greater and greater on the residential communities, particularly things like smells during warm parts of the year, chicken parts being stolen by magpies or other birds and winding up in people’s backyards, and truck traffic,” he said.

“It became clear to everyone that the plant would be better suited somewhere in an industrial area.”

Carra was optimistic the closure and eventual demolition of the plant combined with the Green Line development can help revitalize the Ramsay area.

“We’ve kept the jobs and the tax base inside city limits, we’re doing better for the environment and we’re freeing up one of the most awful remainders of Ramsay’s industrial past,” he said.

“It creates the opportunity to connect to the future main street of 11th Street, to create a higher-density edge in Ramsay that creates the kind of density we need to rationalize the investment of the Green Line without significantly impacting the lower-density heritage character of the existing neighbourhood.

“It’s a win-win-win all around.”

The Calgary Police Service will make use of the plant as a training facility before the building’s demolition, Carra said.