The Ontario government did “everything we could” to prevent the closing of the Heinz plant in Leamington, Premier Kathleen Wynne said Monday under fire from opposition parties over 740 looming layoffs.

Wynne told the legislature she reached out to Heinz officials at least four times before last Thursday’s announcement the plant — the largest employer in Leamington — will shut down next year.

“We worked very hard to understand why . . . to make sure we understood what the basis of the decision was and to try to intervene,” the premier added after Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Hudak charged high electricity rates and taxes were to blame for the Heinz decision.

Hudak said the minority Liberal government is doing nothing to stop the “erosion” of the manufacturing sector, which has also seen U.S. Steel in Hamilton, Bick’s Pickles in Dunnville, and Redpath Sugar in Niagara Falls cease production.

“What has to grab you folks by the lapels and shake you to the reality that your plan isn’t working?”

The Heinz announcement last week included the closure of plants in South Carolina and Indiana as the company said it had too much manufacturing capacity to meet demand for ketchup, sauces, baby food and other products.

Sales in its North American division dropped 1.4 per cent, or $46 million (U.S.), to $3.2 billion in the last fiscal year and cuts were widely expected after a $28 billion takeover by Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. and hedge fund 3G Capital, which prompted the axing of 600 office jobs last summer.

Some of the Leamington production will be moved to a Heinz plant in St. Marys , north of London, Ont., but it’s not known how many jobs will be added there.

New Democrat MPP and Taras Natyshak (Essex) said the government did not heed warnings for months that the Leamington plant was on the bubble, leaving 46 area tomato growers without contracts to sell their produce and idling another 350 seasonal workers.

“Your Liberal government keeps talking about local food,” he said in a reference to a recently passed law to promote Ontario-grown edibles, “but yet stands idly by as processing facilities shut their doors and devastate communities.”

Wynne said there’s little the province can do when a company has made a business decision.

“The third party thinks they can control the private sector. That’s not how it works.”

Workers at the plant will get help preparing resumés and finding new work or retraining, while Economic Development Minister Eric Hoskin said he is sending officials to Leamington this week to see if the plant can be “repurposed” to save jobs as Ontario looks to expand its food processing industry.

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