MADE IN HAMILTON
20TH CENTURY
INDUSTRIAL TRAIL

SITE 2
W. R. CARPENTER CANADA LTD., 1942
CANAMERA FOODS

Hamilton's prime location on major transportation routes has prompted a number of food processing companies to set up shop here since the mid-nineteenth century. Workers inside this giant complex of conveyors, piping, tanks and bins process huge quantities of soybeans and canola into vegetable oil products.

This plant began operations in Hamilton in 1942 under the name W.R. Carpenter Canada Ltd. During the Second World War, it processed a variety of materials including copra, linseed and rapeseed. In 1946, the company changed its name to Canadian Vegetable Oil Processing Ltd. and switched to peanut oil production. It began processing soybeans three years later, when peanut supplies dwindled. In 1983, the company also began to process canola, Canada's largest oilseed crop.

The company has changed owners a number of times. It now operates as CanAmera Foods, a partnership of U.S.-based Central Soya and the Saskatchewan and Manitoba Wheat Boards. The 96 workers in this plant have been unionized since 1984.

Workers at this plant are organized as United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 617.