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Doug Ford promotes cannery that’s been reprimanded by environment ministry

Ontario Premier Doug Ford visits Sun-Brite Foods in Leamington, Ont. on July 16, 2020. The premier is being criticized for promoting the cannery, which has been fined in the past for environmental offences. Photo from Doug Ford/Twitter

Premier Doug Ford is under fire Thursday after promoting a cannery owned by Progressive Conservative donors who have been fined for environmental offences.

Sun-Brite Foods president Onorio (Henry) Iacobelli and his wife, Lina, donated a total of $4,922 to the PC Party in 2018 and 2019, Elections Ontario’s political contribution database shows. Ford visited the southern Ontario cannery Thursday, part of a summer tour the premier said was meant to thank the public for doing their part during COVID-19.

The company has twice been reprimanded by Ontario’s environment ministry — once in 2018 for releasing toxic water that smelled like sulphur, resulting in a fine of nearly $300,000, and another in 2012 for dumping waste on farmland without permission.

“While visiting Sun-Brite Foods Inc. today, I saw some of the best quality Ontario grown tomatoes!” Ford wrote in a tweet about his visit. “These guys are the #OntarioSpirit.”

Ford has previously denied that the tour amounts to campaigning. The premier has faced criticism in the past for telling Ontarians to visit businesses owned by PC donors.

Premier Doug Ford is under fire Thursday after promoting a cannery owned by Progressive Conservative donors who have been fined for environmental offences. #onpoli

The connections with Sun-Brite were first reported by Global News.

“This is a clear case of ‘follow the money,’” said Ontario Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner in a statement.

“We need a premier who will create laws that reward companies for doing the right thing and not treat laws that protect our water as red tape.”

Ford’s office and Sun-Brite Foods did not immediately respond to requests from National Observer.

The cannery is in Leamington, Ont., southwest of Chatham-Kent. The company operates the brand names Unico and Primo, and works for clients such as Heinz and Campbell’s.

Sun-Brite was fined $287,500 in 2018 for a 2015 incident where the company discharged toxic water and did not report it to the province.

After residents of nearby Kingsville, Ont., complained about a foul smell coming from a drain, inspectors found water that was blackish-grey, warm, smelled like sulphur and was toxic to aquatic life. The company pleaded guilty to two charges.

The company also received a slap on the wrist in 2012 when it spread stinky organic waste onto farmland without getting provincial authorization, prompting complaints from neighbours. The government did not fine Sun-Brite, as the company voluntarily agreed to fix the problem.

Schreiner pointed to Bill 132, a piece of legislation the Ford government passed last year that lessened many fines for polluters.

“Doug Ford is rewarding not just a PC donor, but a company that was fined $287,500 under water protection laws that the Conservatives have since weakened,” Schreiner said in the statement.

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