And then there was no more cheese
Sometimes a sad story hides behind another. Today, while local attention was concentrated on the election in progress, the local cheese factory announced it was closing. Just another economic downturn? Not quite, as this factory has been running a deficit for more than four decades. Obviously it was time to stop spilling milk. Not quite. This cheese was special.
We’ve always treated a certain slice of society in a special way. We’ve changed the labels, altered the day-to-day handling, but the mentally challenged have had their place. Here, in Beauport, we’ve been running an asylum for a sixteen decades, and for eleven of those, we’ve made cheese. At the asylum.
Land was cheap, cows were cheap, labour was cheap. Economics in a classic way. Take the inmates and have them feed the cows, milk the cows, make the cheese, profit. Well, not exactly in those terms, but you get the picture. Near the Beautiful Harbour, we had the Elysian Fields. Paradise in action.
Times changed. The asylum no longer kept famous politicians like Riel. The times changed further. We no longer called them insane; rather, they were challenged, in need of reintegration. Times changed. We closed the wards, and sent the clients out to forage for themselves. The cheese factory no longer showed a profit; cows became expensive to keep, and the site in the middle of a thriving city became anachronistic. Alas, the government could no longer continue to spill milk each day, even if it did make great cheese, with a steady market.
So, behind the screen of a provincial election, the managers today announced that Fromagerie S.M.A. would cease production, and the cows would be sold at auction. No mention was made of the disposition of the workers.
