Canada’s Minister of Justice and Attorney General David Lametti stopped in to see his old friends at Riganelli’s Bakery Saturday
Current owner Nick Dell’omo, who bought the bakery from the Riganelli family in 2000, had invited Lametti to “come visit the Riganellis” when the then Minister of Justice spoke at a Niagara Board of Trade and Commerce event at Club Capri last fall.
Lametti kept that in mind when he returned to Niagara this week to announce $2.3 million in funding to the Canadian Grapevine Certification Network (CGCN).
“My parents and the Riganelli men came from the same town,” Lametti told ThoroldNews; “from Marches, Italy. My parents were really good friends with them, and we grew up with them. They would come to visit us in Port Colborne and we would come to Thorold and visit their family,” he said, adding that he loved their pizza.
“We have maintained this family friendship over the years. It’s just great to see them all again.”
“When we were kids, we had a good time together in Port Colborne,” recalled Paul Riganelli, whose dad owned the bakery from 1957 to 1999. “I worked here when I was in high school.”
Lametti , who added the position of Attorney General to his portfolio this past January, made the funding announcement at the Konzelmann Estate Winery Saturday, on behalf of Agriculture and Agri-Food Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau.
According to a press release from the Office of the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food, the CGCN will receive the funding through the Canadian Agricultural Partnership’s AgriAssurance program “to create a network of certified, virus-free grapevines that Canadian grape growers can plant in their vineyards to ensure the long-term viability of Canada’s grape and wine sectors.”
“As part of this project, CGCN will catalogue and assess existing samples from nurseries and grape growers across Canada,” said the press release. “A database will then be used to trace back every vine produced through this program and planted in a grower’s vineyard back to the mother plants. This will help the CGCN keep Canada’s vineyards virus-free.”
A collaboration of the Grape Growers of Ontario, the British Columbia Wine Grape Council, l’Association des vignerons due Quebec, and the Grape Growers Association of Nova Scotia, the CGCN is a nation-wide not for profit organization whose mission is to ensure high quality, certified disease-free grapevines in Canada. The country’s wine industry generates revenues of $1.2 billion and employs more than 5,600 people.