P.E.I. signs off on training money for Irving

Innovation Minister Allan Campbell has completed an agreement to provide hundreds of thousands of dollars to Irving-owned Cavendish Farms for staff training.

The training money is being used to help workers cope financially with several week-long plant shut-downs scheduled over the next few months. Company officials say they need the temporary closures to deal with a market downturn.

The workers will be paid for the weeks they are being trained. Campbell told CBC News Tuesday the government will be spending a little more than $600,000 on the training.

"What we're basically talking about here is we can help them out by providing some training assistance," he said.

"They have submitted a training proposal to train staff, you know, to work in other areas of the plant, to look at perhaps some diversification. They're dealing in an export market, and they're dealing with a situation where they are facing some market challenges.

Campbell said it's a good investment in a company that employs about 800 people on P.E.I.

"Anytime I think that you can invest in training of staff, I think it's a wonderful thing. And we had the opportunity to do that here with P.E.I.'s largest private sector employer."

He noted the money will go to the employees and not the company's bottom line. The first plant shutdown is scheduled to begin on Nov. 20.