Four cereal based producer commissions in Saskatchewan, Alberta, Manitoba and Ontario have announced plans to contribute a total of $13.4 million dollars to the proposed Global Agriculture Technology Exchange in Winnipeg.
The project, known by the acronym GATE, will contain state-of-the-art equipment for milling, baking, pasta and noodle making, malt and brewing as well as processing. It will cover services in the current Cereals Canada facility. GATE’S total cost will be $102 million, which includes a site in downtown Winnipeg, construction and the cost of housing advanced milling equipment.
The Saskatchewan Wheat Development Commission will contribute $6,243,074, Alberta Grains is pitching in $4,319,798, the Manitoba Crop Alliance $2,655,587, and Cereals Canada $5-million.
“To uphold Canada’s position as a leader in nutritious and high quality ingredients, GATE is a bold vision for the future of cereal grains value chain and bold visions require bold action.” said Joanne Buth, Capital Campaign Chair and former Manitoba Senator and former CEO of of the Canadian International Grains Institute (Cigi).
“The building that currently houses Cereals Canada and its activities has been woefully inadequate for a very long time,” said Rob Stone, a SaskWheat Director and GATE Capital Campaign Cabinet Honourary Member on why a new facility is needed rather than refurbishing an existing building. “It presents an opportunity right now to build out for the next 50 years.”
Another reason GATE is needed, according to Stone, is to help Canada maintain its competitive edge in the wheat, durum and malt barley markets.
With the producer funding in place, along with the commitment from Cereals Canada, the next step will be to approach government entities and other potential funding partners.
“We’re just kind of getting some of those discussions underway now that harvest is starting to get behind us and we’re able to start meeting some fairly tight timelines on getting some of these things in place.” said Stone.
The Wheat Growers Association opposes using producer check-off dollars to build a new facility. SaskWheat says their funding is conditional upon securing the required financial support from government entities and other funding partners.
“If we don’t meet what is laid out for the next steps and directions for fundraising, obviously our 6.2 million dollars that has been committed to make this project go ahead will not be distributed. But this project has to go ahead and it has to meet a lot of targets along the way, but the significant oversight from our Board and from myself and other people that are involved in the planning process of this.” Stone stated.
When asked if SaskWheat and other organizations that support GATE be willing to talk to other groups who oppose it, Stone said they’d be willing.
“It’s always great to have a good dialogue in all of these decisions – it is a lot of money, there is a lot of responsibility that comes with this, and I myself, and I’m sure that everyone on our Board takes these concerns very seriously about financial matters like that. Informally, we’ve been able to chat with different people that have concerns and I think that’s a good way to go forward with this. I expect, and hope, that as more details become available that’s we’ll be able to speak to, and address, most of the concerns that people have and realize that this is the step forward for farmers that we need.”
(With files from CJWW)