CAMBRIDGE BAY (OCT 28/96) - The new combined meat and fish-processing plant in Cambridge Bay nears completion.
Work on the 7,800-square-foot facility is about 80-per-cent finished and should be complete by year's end, said Calvin Schindel, general manager of Kitikmeot Foods Ltd.
The project will not only give the plant's 12 employees more elbow room, but allow more opportunities to market the product.
When complete, the building be inspected by Agriculture Canada, opening the door for more distribution opportunities, Schindel said.
"Since the facilities are bigger, we have the opportunity to expand our markets and have more people working," he said. "That's our goal and we're achieving it slowly."
The old plants were separate structures about 1,000 square feet each.
"In the old plant, every time you turned around, you were running into your neighbor," Schindel said. "Now we'll have a distinct area for processing, packaging and shipping, as Agriculture Canada requires.
"That's why we went to the new plant."
The NWT Development Corporation is the majority shareholder in the facility.
As many as 20 people work in the plants in the summer.
But with a contact made last week, Schindel said there is much opportunity to grow.
Products from the Cambridge plant, mainly muskox, caribou and Arctic Char, are sold across the NWT and to major cities in southern Canada as well as Boston and Denver in the U.S.