Lilydale is one of the biggest food processing companies in Canada, with several different plants and hatcheries in different provinces. I have visited two of them, the Calgary one and the Port Coquitlam one. The second one in B. C. although have a few homes around it but most of the buildings surrounding it are commercial ones. This one in Calgary is located in a residential area with even a school across from the street. Most of the houses close to the plant remind you of abandoned houses in small ghost towns in the movies! I believe a few of them are purchased by Lilydale employees, mostly supervisors. I once saw one of them in work uniform and safety hat walking on the premises.
The area is subject to strong odor and high level noise. Big trucks have to go to the plant on daily basis and for a processing firm like that which runs 3 shifts a day, you can imagine how many trucks in a day go to the area, many of them in the middle of the night, I believe or early morning. In the winter the street that the plant is located in looks likes a battle field where mines and shell explosions have made numerous holes! If you have a Jeep, Hammer or a Tank, you'll be fine driving to and from the street. Anything else would not work! There is no doubt that the odor and noise does not bother the employees because that is part of their 8-hour work and then they go home and sleep it off but for the resident there's another story. They come home after may be a nasty day, because of the work or weather and face a new problem. Imagine you're sleep at 05:34 AM and you feel that you're bed is shaking! First you think there's another earthquake in Vancouver Island and that is how you feel it here. Then you hear a whining noise and that's the time you realize that a chicken truck has entered the neighborhood to deliver its daily load. The situation might not be as bad as I just narrated here but whatever it is that has recently made the people of the area to lunch a lawsuit against the company. People are demanding a huge chunk of money but Lilydale representative says that the company has not broken any law and will fight against the complaint.
It's a clear as crystal to me that these people know that they can not have the facility moved to another location so they are just trying to make some easy money for their retirement time(!) which is not a very bad idea but we will wait to see what they get!
(Photo: Lilydale Plant in S. E. Calgary in a Sun. morning. This does not look too bad now. Wait until winter arrives, employees vehicles are parked and 18-wheelers coming and going!)
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