looking back


Legacy of Dominion Glass Company gleans on


Blake Pedersen, MLA Medicine Hat Constituency


I am proud to say that I live in Southeast Alberta which is an energy and agriculture leader for our province. We have the ability, both economically and socially to remain steadfast to take advantages of the opportunities as they present themselves. As a result of this we have been blessed with priority programs and continued infrastructure investments.


Medicine Hat is a great place to live with its quality of life, low cost of living, unlimited cultural and recreational resources. Also, it is Canada’s Sunniest City, and we embrace the new tourism slogan introduced by the City of Medicine Hat on January 13, 2015 - “A Sunshine State of Mind”.


I am honored to represent the constituents of Medicine Hat and will endeavor to address whatever concerns you may have.


Offi ce:


537 4 Street SE Medicine Hat, AB T1A 0K7


Medicine Hat, AB T1A 0K7 Telephone: 403 527 5622 Fax: 403 527 5112 Email: medicine.hat@assembly.ab.ca


54 2015 REPORT ON SOUTHEAST ALBERTA


A TIM KALINOWSKI


t the turn of the 20th century Redcliff contained three brick-making companies, an ornamental iron works, a cigar


factory, a brewery and a rolling mill. Companies were drawn to Redcliff for its cheap natural gas and by offers of free land from its town fathers.


Dominion Glass Company was no exception. Requiring massive quantities of natural gas to burn in the glass making process, Dominion Glass Company considered both Redcliff and Medicine Hat to set up operations in. It was the added incentive of free land that saw Redcliff win out in the end.


Construction on the Redcliff Glass Factory began in 1912 and glassware began to roll off the line a year later. It continued to operate for the next 75 years until its final closure in 1989. At its height nearly 700 people worked at the Redcliff Glass Factory.


The factory produced beverage containers for beer, spirits, soda pop, milk and juice. It also made food containers for jams and various other preserve jars and sealers, as well as prescription bottles and other types of smaller glass containers to meet a


specific need in society. It provided well paying jobs for the men and women who came to work there.


Barb Roberts began working at Dominion Glass Company as a student in 1956. She became a full-time employee in 1958 and stayed with the company for the next 31 years.


“You had to work as a team,” remembers Roberts. “Each department conveyed from the previous shift to the next to make the production better. Everybody was loyal to the company and we had pride in ourselves and in our job. It was a very hot place to work in the summer and when I started there it was very cold in the


winter. Over the years they


improved everything and made it a lot better for us. It was hard work but I come from a farm and was used to that.”


Roberts started work at $1.04 1/2 an hour , a good sum in 1956. She started out working on the line in the packing plant. Bottles


and containers would be produced at an accelerated rate and would often still be hot when they reached Roberts and the other packers who would have to keep up and keep a sharp eye out for defects, removing flawed glassware from the line before it got shipped off to


awaiting companies.


“When I first started there they had the uniforms but if you didn’t want to wear them you didn’t have to,” recalls Roberts. “They were like a mechanic’s overhauls.


41188834•03/31/15


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