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Canada Bread move good news for Woodstock

Canada Bread move good news for Woodstock

Nova Scotia is losing its Canada Bread factory, but the move to New Brunswick will extend the life of a Woodstock institution that began as a small bakery at the end of the Second World War.

New Brunswick will gain 35 positions at Canada Bread: 15 in Moncton and 20 in Woodstock.

That’s great news for Dan Lockhart, a Woodstock man who has been looking for a job for a month.

"It's going to be nice for our area here, not so good for the Nova Scotia area,” he said.

Job developer Betty Parker says her office in Woodstock helps around 1,000 people a year with their job search. But jobs that promise full time work at good wages are rare.

"At this time of year, there are a lot of people looking for work, and people say, 'Well there's a lot of seasonal work', but a lot of those seasonal workers are looking for full-time work if they can find it,” she said.

“New jobs coming to the area are most welcome."

End of era in Nova Scotia

But the century-old plant in Nova Scotia will close come November, laying off over 100 workers.

That announcement came on the same day New Brunswick and Nova Scotia premiers met to talk about co-operation between the provinces.

Rumours started that the company was concentrating on New Brunswick because of over $200,000 in payroll rebates.

The company says the closure of its Nova Scotia plant had nothing to do with the incentive program offered in New Brunswick.

Laurel Munroe, spokeswoman for Premier Stephen McNeil, said it was ultimately a business decision on the part of Canada Bread.

"The company did not approach the Nova Scotia government for assistance. Obviously they had made a decision to consolidate their operations, they chose to do it in New Brunswick and New Brunswick chose to help them," she said.

Through the program, the company received a payroll rebate on 35 jobs. Those 35 jobs have to be 37.5 hours a week, with a minimum annual salary of $41,000. The company says not all of its positions may even qualify.

What is now Canada Bread in Woodstock started in 1946 as Karnes Bakery. Peggy Karnes’s husband John started it after he returned from the war.

Karnes Bakery ended up the biggest employer in Woodstock with over 100 employees. They sold in 1982.

It now employs around 50 people. After the closure of the Canada Bread facility upriver in St. Andre two years ago, there was worry the Woodstock plant might go.

When Peggy Karnes heard that the Mexican-owned Canada Bread company will be adding 20 jobs along with an expansion to make English muffins, she was delighted.

"I'm just so happy over that because we thought it might close down. But they will keep it going,” she said.

And she would like to think that what she and her husband started almost 70 years ago, will remain as much of a going concern as she is, at 92.