Amherstburg Mayor Michael Prue says drinks giant Diageo stalled efforts to sell its shuttered Ontario bottling plant immediately after Premier Doug Ford abandoned a threatened Crown Royal sales ban.
Ford had pressured Diageo for months to preserve 160 local jobs, vowing to remove Crown Royal from LCBO shelves. He relented in exchange for a $23 million Diageo commitment to spend across Ontario-only $500,000 of which targets Amherstburg directly.
Prue said the company canceled a scheduled town meeting shortly after the deal closed and has gone silent since. “We don’t have any independent cards,” he said. “We can beg them, we can ask them, we can fall on our knees.”
The plant, closed in February, remains idle despite reported buyer interest. Diageo claims it’s formally soliciting bids but acknowledges no qualified offers emerged before listing the property in December.
“The ball is squarely in their hands,” Prue added. “They own it lock, stock and barrel.”