Town Hopes to Turn Over New Leaf

Source from:  Sun, October 23, 2005 By HANK DANISZEWSKI, Free Press Reporter 10/24/2005

Mayor Paul Baldwin is confident Aylmer will overcome the loss of the Imperial Tobacco plant. By the time the last 80 jobs at the Imperial Tobacco plant are gone in 2007, this town hopes to have turned over a new leaf. Just a block east of the doomed plant, Mayor Paul Baldwin points out several small new plants that have sprouted in the industrial park, mostly run by entrepreneurs from the town's large Mennonite community. "These people are hard-working, skilled and ambitious," he said. "This is the wave of the future." The Imperial Tobacco processing plant used to be the largest employer in this town of 7,000. Baldwin, a former principal of East Elgin secondary school, remembers when it was all too easy for students to drop out, lured by a well-paid job with Imperial. But in 2003, 260 primary processing jobs were slashed and most of the plant was shut down. This week, Imperial announced it was moving all its Canadian production to Mexico, eliminating the last 80 jobs in Aylmer and more than 500 at its Guelph cigarette plant. News of the plant shutdown "stings," Baldwin said, but yesterday he was cheered by attending the official opening of Aylmer Truck Centre, a service operation for big rigs run by Abe Loewen. Then Baldwin crossed the street to Advanced Stainless, a new plant making steel tanks and other parts for the food industry. Owner Will Enns grew up in Aylmer in a Mennonite family of 15. His father and four of his brothers worked at Imperial Tobacco. "They all quit and moved on a few years ago. They saw the writing of the wall. The decline was evident," he said. His brothers mainly went into the booming trucking business. Enns has a profitable side business selling stainless steel accessories to dress up transport trucks. "These guys pay $150,000 for a truck and another $10,000 to $20,000 to fix them up. This is their home on the road," he said. Baldwin hopes the town can find a new buyer for the Imperial plant, perhaps an auto parts firm to supply the nearby Toyota and Cami assembly plants. If not, the town will lose about five per cent of its tax base. Baldwin said Imperial Tobacco has been been a good corporate citizen over the years, donating $1 million in 2003 to the impressive East Elgin Community Complex. "They have contributed greatly to the prosperity to the town in the form of jobs and purchases," Baldwin said. Despite the 2003 layoffs and the decline of the tobacco industry, Baldwin said he didn't see the final shutdown coming because Imperial had invested $110 million in the plant during the last decade, including a facility to process fine-cut tobacco used in "roll-your-own" cigarettes. Baldwin said it isn't the first time Aylmer has faced the exodus of a major manufacturer. Years ago, the town lost a vegetable canning plant that had put the town's name on supermarket shelves across the county. During the 1980s, it was a Carnation plant that closed. But Baldwin is confident Aylmer will recover and the Mennonite entrepreneurs will get the wheels turning again. "Because they come from a farm background, the mechanical stuff is second nature to them. They can do amazing things." Enditem