Local MP Scott Reid On Hershey’s Smiths Falls Plant

Ottawa – Today, local MP Scott Reid rose in the House of Commons to make the following statement:

Mr. Speaker,

Last week, the Hershey Company announced that it would be closing its plant in Smiths Falls.

It is hard to overstate the impact of this decision.
-Five hundred factory jobs will be lost.
-A market for 1,000 litres of Ontario milk a day will vanish.
-The Hershey chocolate shop, which attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors each year, will no longer draw tourists to town.

But these are not the only reasons why I today call on Hershey to reverse its decision.

This decision is a spin-off of what the company calls a “global supply chain transformation”—a process which by its nature tends to miss out on local profit centres.

And while no one can deny that wages in Mexico may be lower than in Smiths Falls, it is equally clear that there are some things that can’t be globalized.

The decision-makers in Pennsyslvania may simply be overlooking the high quality of Canadian milk, which will be difficult to duplicate abroad. And shutting down the hugely profitable chocolate shop makes no sense, since it caters to a domestic market.

In years past, Milton Hershey understood the link between community and profit. I call upon his successors to live up to his example.

For more information or to speak with Mr. Reid
Please call (613) 257-8130 or (613) 947-2277.

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