Page - 238 - in VULNERABLE - The Law, Policy and Ethics of COVID-19

VULNERABLE238 food, food production, and food processing.12 It reported revenues of $113.5 billion and a profit of $2.82 billion in the year ending May 31, 2019.13 Cargill Canada employs about 8,000 people in the food and agriculture industries, including meat processing in Alberta, Ontario, and Quebec.14 Its High River beef processing plant, which employs 2000,15 accounts for about 35% of the beef processing capacity in Canada.16 Given their prominence in the Canadian food production system, Cargill’s Canadian operations were also deemed essential.17 Unlike Dollarama, the company provided scant information about preven- tive measures at its plants until an April 29, 2020, press release18 on the U.S. parent website. The post was clearly responding to negative publicity following revelations that several hundred workers at the High River plant were infected with COVID-19 and one had died.19 An investigation by The  Globe and Mail reported that protective mea- sures were not fully implemented until mid-April despite the first cases of infection being reported in March; curiously, an inspection by Alberta regulators, conducted by video call on April 15, concluded that the site was safe.20 While accounts differ, employees reported 12. Cargill, “About Cargill” (last visited 27 May 2020), online: Cargill <www.cargill. com/about>. 13. As a private company, Cargill’s financial information is not subject to the report- ing requirements of securities law and regulations, but it does publish a form of annual report on its website. See Cargill, “Cargill Annual Report—Year Ended May 31, 2019)” (30 July 2019) at 2, online (pdf): Cargill <www.cargill.com/doc 1432144962450/2019-annual-report.pdf>. 14. Cargill, “Products and Services” (last visited 27 May 2020), online: Cargill <www. cargill.ca/en/products-and-services>. 15. Cargill, “Meat Processing” (last visited 27 May 2020), online: Cargill <www.car- gill.ca/en/meat-processing>. 16. Bill Graveland, “Cargill is Shuttering its High River Meat-Packing Plant After it Was Linked to More than 350 Cases of Coronavirus”, Financial Post (20 April 2020), online: <business.financialpost.com/commodities/agriculture/ newsalert-high-river-alta-meat-packing-plant-temporarily-stopping-produc- tion>. 17. Cargill, “Cargill Statement on Reopening High River Alberta Protein Facility” (29 April 2020), online: Cargill <www.cargill.com/story/cargill-statement- reopening-high-river-alberta-protein-facility>. 18. Ibid. A full company statement on its COVID-19 response was published on April 30, 2020, see Cargill, “Cargill’s Response to the COVID-19 Global Pandemic” (30 April 2020), online: Cargill <www.cargill.com/story/cargills- response-to-the-covid-19-global-pandemic>. 19. Graveland, supra note 16. 20. Katherine B Brown, Carrie Tait & Tavia Grant, “How Cargill Became the Site of Canada’s Largest Single Outbreak of COVID-19”, The  Globe  and