Quinn’s Meats Fire Worsens Crisis For Local Food Industry

Jeff Green | Jul 03, 2024

Local meat producers throughout Southeastern Ontario have been struggling with a lack of abattoir services for a decade now, and the fire at Quinn’s Meats in Stone Mills late last Thursday afternoon, has made what was already a difficult situation into a crisis.

Wallace Beef, which was located at the Joyceville Penitentiary in rural Kingston, closed down in September of 2022. In late 2021, a proposal for an abattoir that was originally to be located near Yarker, and later in Napanee, was abandoned for financial and organisational reasons.

Dave Perry operates Perry-Anjou farms near Harrowsmith, and his wife Kim runs Local Family Farms in Verona, which sells beef and pork from the farm along with regionally produced food products, fresh baking, and more. He is also a long serving member of the Frontenac Cattlemen's Association executive, which is associated with Beef Farmers of Ontario, based in Guelph.

Quinn’s Meats was purchased in 2021 by Enright Farms and is managed by Kara Enright. Since then, Quinn’s has shifted its focus a bit, handling all of the Enright cattle, and it has kept on other customers as well, including the Perry family farm.

Dave Perry received a call soon after the fire started and he rushed over to see what was going on.

“You could see right away that it was a major fire,” he said. “Crews did what they could to save the building but there were animals lost, and of course all of the product. I feel for Kara Enright, who was there at the time. It’s a big loss for her, and for a lot of people as well.

“We are devastated by the loss of our building at Quinn’s Meats to fire yesterday. Deepest thanks to the Stone Mills and Loyalist firefighters who responded to the scene, and to our neighbours who brought them food and drink as they fought the fire. Fortunately, there were no injuries. Our thoughts are now on how best to help our community of farmers and customers,” she posted on the Enright Cattle Facebook page on Friday, September 28.

Dave Perry said that he lost two pigs, which had been processed at Quinn’s last week, and is now trying to find out how he can continue to supply beef to his customers at Local Family Farms.

“We go at it pretty steady during the summer, and I don’t know what we are going to do now,” he said on Monday, July 1, in a telephone interview. I’m going to make some calls tomorrow but I don’t know what we are going to do.”

Perry said that it could take years to develop a new abattoir to handle the local market’s needs.

“After the Thorpe Farms plan did not go forward there has been nothing as far as I know,” he said. “The only possibility in the short term would be the Joyceville facility, because it is already built.”

Since Wallace Beef closed, Perry said a few groups have made inquiries about taking it over, possibly as a completely privately run facility on the grounds of the correctional facility, but nothing has happened so far.

“There are some politics involved as well,” said Perry.

Joyceville is located in the federal riding of MPP Mark Gerretson, Kingston and the Islands, and Gerretson has been engaged in efforts to re-open the abattoir. After the fire, he indicated the government is actively making efforts to re-open the abattoir at the penitentiary.

"The fire at Quinn’s Abattoir will have a devastating impact for Eastern Ontario farmers requiring meat processing services, given that it was the only operational facility in the region. The former Wallace Abattoir within Joyceville Penitentiary provides a possible solution. Minister Leblanc and I had the opportunity to tour the institution in May, and at that time the future of this abattoir was identified as a priority. Given the news about Quinn’s, I reached out to the Minister to underscore the urgency of the situation for regional farmers, and to express my support for moving forward expediently on the Joyceville abattoir file,” he said in an email response to an inquiry from the NeQuinn’s Meats fire creates crisis for local food industry

Local meat producers throughout Southeastern Ontario have been struggling with a lack of abattoir services for a decade now, and the fire at Quinn’s Meats in Stone Mills late last Thursday afternoon, has made what was already a difficult situation into a crisis.

Wallace Beef, which was located at the Joyceville Penitentiary in rural Kingston, closed down in September of 2022. In late 2021, a proposal for an abattoir that was originally to be located near Yarker, and later in Napanee, was abandoned for financial and organisational reasons.

Dave Perry operates Perry-Anjou farms near Harrowsmith, and his wife Kim runs Local Family Farms in Verona, which sells beef and pork from the farm along with regionally produced food products, fresh baking, and more. He is also a long serving member of the Frontenac Cattlemen's Association executive, which is associated with Beef Farmers of Ontario, based in Guelph.

Quinn’s Meats was purchased in 2021 by Enright Farms and is managed by Kara Enright. Since then, Quinn’s has shifted its focus a bit, handling all of the Enright cattle, and it has kept on other customers as well, including the Perry family farm.

Dave Perry received a call soon after the fire started and he rushed over to see what was going on.

“You could see right away that it was a major fire,” he said. “Crews did what they could to save the building but there were animals lost, and of course all of the product. I feel for Kara Enright, who was there at the time. It’s a big loss for her, and for a lot of people as well.

“We are devastated by the loss of our building at Quinn’s Meats to fire yesterday. Deepest thanks to the Stone Mills and Loyalist firefighters who responded to the scene, and to our neighbours who brought them food and drink as they fought the fire. Fortunately, there were no injuries. Our thoughts are now on how best to help our community of farmers and customers,” she posted on the Enright Cattle Facebook page on Friday, September 28.

Dave Perry said that he lost two pigs, which had been processed at Quinn’s last week, and is now trying to find out how he can continue to supply beef to his customers at Local Family Farms.

“We go at it pretty steady during the summer, and I don’t know what we are going to do now,” he said on Monday, July 1, in a telephone interview. I’m going to make some calls tomorrow but I don’t know what we are going to do.”

Perry said that it could take years to develop a new abattoir to handle the local market’s needs.

“After the Thorpe Farms plan did not go forward there has been nothing as far as I know,” he said. “The only possibility in the short term would be the Joyceville facility, because it is already built.”

Since Wallace Beef closed, Perry said a few groups have made inquiries about taking it over, possibly as a completely privately run facility on the grounds of the correctional facility, but nothing has happened so far.

“There are some politics involved as well,” said Perry.

Joyceville is located in the federal riding of MPP Mark Gerretson, Kingston and the Islands, and Gerretson has been engaged in efforts to re-open the abattoir. After the fire, he indicated the government is actively making efforts to re-open the abattoir at the penitentiary.

"The fire at Quinn’s Abattoir will have a devastating impact for Eastern Ontario farmers requiring meat processing services, given that it was the only operational facility in the region. The former Wallace Abattoir within Joyceville Penitentiary provides a possible solution. Minister Leblanc and I had the opportunity to tour the institution in May, and at that time the future of this abattoir was identified as a priority. Given the news about Quinn’s, I reached out to the Minister to underscore the urgency of the situation for regional farmers, and to express my support for moving forward expediently on the Joyceville abattoir file,” he said in an email response to an inquiry from the News.

There is some opposition to re-opening the abattoir at Joyceville, however.

Calvin Neufeld, who runs a project called “Evolve Our Prison Farms,” which opposes meat production in favour of vegetable-based farming, released a 36-page report on the Joyceville Abattoir in 2022, in which he outlined some incidents at the Wallace Beef operation going back to 1997.

“In preparing the report, Neufeld employed the Freedom of Information Act to find a number of concerns with the plant since it opened in 1995. There were a number of incidents, and cases where Joyceville officials expressed a desire to close the operation. However, the time frame studied in the report, which is called “Bloody Bad Business” is over 25 years old, and while serious, the number of specific incidents reported on is relatively low.

Dave Perry, the Cattlemen’s Association, the National Farmers Union Local 316 and the Frontenac Federation of Agriculture remains very concerned about the lack of meat processing capacity for small-scale local production.

“Quinn’s was smaller than Wallace Beef was, and there was not enough capacity before last week. Now, it is that much worse,” said Perry. “There is a Beef Farmers of Ontario meeting this month, and there may be a Frontenac meeting to talk about what can be done,” Perry said.

As of now, however, there is no firm plan in place to replace the lost capacity, leaving farmer’s scrambling to be able to get to market and maintain their farms