SASKATOON — Cereals Canada is closing in on the halfway mark of the fundraising campaign for its $102 million Global Agriculture Technology Exchange project.
Dean Dias, chief executive officer of Cereals Canada, told delegates attending the Saskatchewan Wheat Development Commission’s annual general meeting that $42.65 million has been raised to date.
GTE is a proposed new “state-of-the-art” grains research facility that will house laboratories, a flour mill, end-product assessment areas and educational training facilities.
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WHY IT MATTERS: The GATE project has been a hot topic for western Canadian farmers.
Cereals Canada announced in December that the GATE facility will be built at the corner of Lombard and Westbrook in downtown Winnipeg on land provided in-kind by James Richardson & Sons, Ltd.
The Manitoba government has pledged $23.5 million to the project.
“We’re calling on all levels of government to come to the table because this is not just a Manitoba project, it’s not just a wheat project, it’s a Canadian agriculture project,” said Dias.
Alanna Koch, a farmer from Edenwold, Sask., and former deputy agriculture minister in Saskatchewan, asked Dias what other commodity groups are investing in the project.
He said there are other partners, but declined to name them noting that’s their announcement to make.
He said the goal is to bring in collaborators, which is why the project is called GATE and not the Cereals Canada building.
“We’ve had conversations with our partners at canola, pulse and others,” he said.
Dias also gave an example of a possible joint project: using the facility to develop a croissant with a mix of wheat and pulse flour and canola-based margarine.
“That type of work doesn’t just support wheat, it supports the entire grain sector,” he said.
Koch said she’s still unsure of the business plan and wonders why construction of a new building is necessary when there’s plenty vacant downtown; not to mention mills all over the world.
“I wonder why we don’t take our experts to where the customers are?” she said.
Dias noted there’s only three other facilities in the world that are focused on flour-quality research and temporarily taking over a commercial mill in a foreign country is not feasible.
“When we go to those countries, there are no mills that they can shut down for us to do that type of training,” he said.
“They are running 24-7 because they are a production facility.”
He said using foreign mills is also a risky proposition for staff because these mills don’t have the same safety protocols that Canada has.
Cereals Canada did evaluate some existing buildings but it’s not as simple as plunking a mill in an office tower.
“Flour is flammable. You need blowout windows. You also need a certain type of concrete that can manage a flour mill with sifters, and you also need a certain type of electrical grade,” said Dias.
The organization hired engineers and technical experts who looked at three vacant buildings in downtown Winnipeg and determined retrofitting costs would be as much as a brand new build.
Corey Loessin, a farmer from Radisson, Sask., and former SaskPulse and Pulse Canada chair, wondered how much of an ongoing annual financial commitment would be required from SaskWheat to run the new facility.
Dias said there will be no change from the existing annual expenditure.
“It’s going to be the same operational costs in this new facility, but we’ll have something that is state-of-the-art,” he said.
SaskWheat chair Jake Leguee noted that the organization has budgeted $6.23 million to invest in the GATE project in 2025-26 if certain conditions are met.
Gerry Hertz, a farmer from Edenwold, Sask., and past board member of SaskCanola, the Canadian Canola Growers Association and the Canola Council of Canada, wondered if the project’s affiliation with Richardson International would cause other grain companies to pull their Cereals Canada funding.
Dias said the facility will be run by Cereals Canada with no outside influence by any single industry partner.
He said all Cereal Canada’s funding partners are on board with the organization’s new strategic plan and have agreed to continue their membership.
