Ontario Stockyards is a livestock auction facility located in
Cookstown, Ontario
Innisfil is a town in Ontario, Canada, located on the western shore of Lake Simcoe in Simcoe County, immediately south of Barrie and north of Toronto. It has historically been a rural area, but since it is geographically sandwiched between th ...
and serves much of
Southern Ontario
Southern Ontario is a Region, primary region of the Canadian Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Ontario. It is the most densely populated and southernmost region in Canada, with approximately 13.5 million people, approximately 36% o ...
in selling cattle, pork and other livestock from producers to buyers to process as meat.
History
St. Lawrence Market 1803-1877
The buying and selling of livestock in early Toronto was done at
St. Lawrence Market
St. Lawrence Market is a major market (place), public market in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is located along Front Street (Toronto), Front Street East and Jarvis Street in the St. Lawrence, Toronto, St. Lawrence neighbourhood of downtown Toront ...
beginning in 1803. Most livestock came from farmers near Toronto.
Western Cattle Market
With the arrival of trains, livestock from further sources could be sold in Toronto. In 1877 the cattle trade moved from the cramped quarters of the city market to a location next to the
Grand Trunk Railway
The Grand Trunk Railway (; ) was a Rail transport, railway system that operated in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian provinces of Quebec and Ontario and in the List of states and territories of the United States, American sta ...
at what is now Wellington Street West and Tecumseth Street. Trade of sheep, pigs would eventually be moved over and by 1887 odor and pollution at the Western site became an issue.
There was also competition from various abattoirs located in the city including:
* Harris Abattoir (near Western Market) - founded by butcher William Harris (1848-1914) as part of W Harris Company
*
William Davies Company
William Davies Company was a pork processing and packing company in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. At one time, it was the largest pork packer in the British Empire, and it operated Canada's first major chain of food stores.
The market would be destroyed by a fire in 1908 and rebuilt shortly after.
Union Stock Yards Company Limited / Toronto Municipal Abattoirs
* Union Stock Yards Company Limited was established in 1900 and began operating in
The Junction
The Junction is a neighbourhood in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, that is near the West Toronto Diamond, a junction of four railway lines in the area. The neighbourhood was previously an independent city called West Toronto, that was also its own fe ...
area of West Toronto in 1903.
* Toronto Municipal Abattoir was opened in 1914 next to the Western Cattle Market site at the foot of Tecumseth Street or Western Cattle Market
Ontario Stockyards
Various abattoirs would relocate to the Junction area including Harris Abattoir Company (1913), Gunns Limited (1907) and Swift Canadian (1911).
Ownership of Union Stockyards from Harris (merged with Davies and Gunn in 1927 to form
Canada Packers
Maple Leaf Foods Inc. is a Canadian multinational consumer-packaged meats and food production company. Its head office is in Mississauga, Ontario.
History
Maple Leaf Foods is the result of the 1991 merger between Canada Packers and Maple ...
)
and Swift were sold to US-based United Stockyards in the 1930s and prompted the Government of Ontario to takeover in 1944. Renamed Ontario Stockyards. the site would become the largest in North America and the only government owned facility in Canada.torontoplaques.com/Pages/Ontario_Stock_Yards.html
The Canada Packers would replace Davies and also move to the Stockyards site.
In 1960, the City of Toronto sold their abattoir to Quality Meat Packers.
Relocation to Cookstown
The growth of the area of West Toronto and Niagara area prompted the closure of livestock activities in the city limits.
The original stockyard site was closed in 1993 and relocated to 3807 Highway 89 in Cookstown. Two cattle processors would remain on the site and have since closed due to operational issues by federal regulators.
Quality Meats closed in 2014 and ended pork processing within the city. Pork processing is now found beyond the city, namely in Burlington (Fearmans),
Woolwich
Woolwich () is a town in South London, southeast London, England, within the Royal Borough of Greenwich.
The district's location on the River Thames led to its status as an important naval, military and industrial area; a role that was mainta ...
(Conestoga) and Mitchell (Great Lakes Specialty - now turkey plant).