The Quebec dairy council is calling on the government to grant “essential service” status to the food-processing sector, in particular for dairy products.
The Les Producteurs de lait du Québec (PLQ) said workers in this sector have children of preschool and school age, and the organization believes that it is necessary to ensure maximum availability of this workforce, which is “qualified and essential to our activities.”
The Government of Quebec has already decreed that day care services, otherwise closed to the population, must be maintained for young children of workers in “essential services” such as employees in the health sector, firefighters and police.
The PLQ requests that the food processing sector also benefit from this status of essential services in order to “be able to continue to meet the food needs of the population.”
In a news release, the chairman of the board, Charles Langlois, said that global and national guidelines “are rigorously applied in all dairy manufacturing units,” and that dairy producers “deploy robust prevention plans to protect their employees, suppliers and production lines.”
Langlois also said that “it is scientifically recognized that milk and milk products are not modes of transmission of the coronavirus.”
The council includes around 90 dairy businesses in Quebec and some 50 service providers.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Mar. 17, 2020.
