The following is a timeline of operations which led up to the plant becoming one of the largest packing plants in the country.
1974 - Lakeside Packers opens its plant outside of Brooks designed to process 50 cattle per hour.
1980 to 1989 - Production by the end of the decade will see the plant processing more than 1,000 head per day.
1994 - American meat processor IBP buys Lakeside Packers.
October 1997 - American food inspectors find E. coli in meat processed at Lakeside, prompting a recall of nearly 18,000 kilograms of product. Liberal Agriculture Minister Lyle Vanclief said at the time, "this is one isolated incident."
July 1999 - The United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) hold a vote to unionize Lakeside, marking a return of the union to the packing plant since being broken in the mid-1980s. The vote fails to win certification.
May 31, 2000 - More than 77,000 kilograms of meat processed at Lakeside is eventually recalled on June 23 after E. coli is found
June 2000 - UFCW tries and fails again to unionize plant workers.
August 2000 - More than 65,000 kilograms of ground beef from Lakeside is recalled after E. coli is found in shipments.
November 2000 - Smithfield Foods makes an unsolicited bid for IBP. Tyson Foods also shows interest in obtaining the company.
January 2001 - Tyson Foods reaches an agreement to purchase IBP operations - including Lakeside - for $3.2 billion.
March 2001 - Tyson attempts to back out of deal, citing financial irregularities with an IBP subsidiary.
April 2001 - More than 144,000 kilograms of beef is recalled following E. coli being found in meat processed at Lakeside. In a news release, IBP says "in the past three years we have invested over $5 million in food safety technology - including steam treatments that sanitize the meat surface and organic acids that kill bacteria."
June 2001 - A Delaware court rules Tyson can't back out of deal to purchase IBP and Lakeside is transferred to Tyson ownership.
November 2002 - The USDA temporarily delists Lakeside and stops imports from the packer following "general sanitation concerns" at the plant. The plant resumes shipments by the end of the month.
May 2003 - The Alberta beef industry is devastated following a U.S. ban on meat from Canada after a case of BSE is traced to a domestic cow. More than 30 countries will eventually also place a ban on Canadian beef exports.
September 2003 - The ban is partially lifted on some beef products.
May 2004 - Lakeside Packers - as well as other packing outfits - are found in contempt of Parliament for failing to provide financial records to prove they didn't unduly profit from bailout funds from the BSE crisis.
July 2004 - Lakeside announces a $17-million expansion of its plant, allowing up to 5,000 head to be processed daily and increasing the permanent workforce to 2,700.
August 2004 - UFCW succeeds in unionizing plant workers by narrowest of margins.
October 2005 - One of the province's nastiest strikes in recent memory erupts as Lakeside workers walk off the job.
November 2005 - The strike ends with UFCW signing its first contract with Tyson.
June 2008 - Tyson sells Lakeside Packers to Alberta-based XL Foods. The deal becomes official in March 2009.
February 2011 - XL Foods receives $1.6 million in federal and provincial grant money to improve the environmental footprint of plants like Lakeside and to help improve productivity.
July 2011 - UFCW signs its second contract, this time with XL Foods.
September 2012 - Lakeside is once again rocked by an E. coli contamination that will eventually result in the country's largest beef recall ever.
October 2012 - Management of the Lakeside plant is taken over by the American arm of Brazilian-based company JBS.
January 2013 - Newly formed JBS Food Canada announces its purchase of Lakeside.
98 | 2013 REPORT ON SOUTHEAST ALBERTA
Martin Shields
a mayor not afraid to take a chance on the future
By TIM KALINOWSKI
Mayor Martin Shields has lived in the Brooks area for 37 years working first as the principal at the Brooks campus of Medicine Hat College and then later as a city councilman and mayor. Shields is an insider: He knows how bureaucracies work. Speak to him for five minutes and you will know you are in the presence of someone who understands how to turn all the cogs and wheels which go along with his office, and who is very at home there amongst the spinning machinery.
But what would surprise many people is how at home Martin Shields is everywhere. For someone who knows how to turn the wheels, he can survive equally well without them. Throw Shields out in nature with a camera and some fly-fishing gear and you’ll see a different side to the man: A man who values self-reliance above any other quality.
“I think the attraction to mountains and water in the forest is always exhilarating for me. You are aware of your surroundings wherever you are,” explains Shields. “At one time I did a lot of nature photography; so I’ve climbed over a mountain looking for a bighorn sheep. It doesn’t bother me to throw a tent in the vehicle and head
out to go camping in those areas like Waterton Park where’s there’s not a lot of people around.”
One look at the mischievous gleam hiding way back in the mayor's eyes and you’ll also know something else: That Shields, like Tom Sawyer, is the one in the room most likely to sneak out the back window to go fishing.
“The older my body gets some of my hobbies get tougher to do. I can still fly-fish. The thing about fly-fishing is you're always moving. You’re moving up and down a stream. It’s a physically
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