Most people receive gifts on major anniversaries. Ray Redfern of Redfern Farm Services viewed the business’s 50th anniversary as an opportunity to give.
A donation of $125,000 marked the southwestern Manitoba company’s golden jubilee. It is bound for Assiniboine Community College and its multi-million-dollar Prairie Innovation Centre for Sustainable Agriculture.
Why it matters: Assiniboine Community College says its planned programming expansion is designed to address labour shortages and increase technical skills in the agri-business sector.
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Redfern characterized the donation as an investment in the future of agriculture. ACC has been a valuable source of skill and labour resources in the regions where he operates, he noted, and a string of his employees trace their education to the college.
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“My motivation has been a bit of a feeling of responsibility to be a part of the community and certainly to be a promoter of agriculture,” Redfern said.
“So, on a general basis, what do I think we should all do? Well, the education system is maybe one thing. And we can ask government to pay it all, but if government has its own limitations and we think there’s a need for better enhancement of education, then those that think we can steal enough of our own earnings to be able to help support it, then we should.”
Redfern said he has strong feelings about this cause.
He has made other time and financial contributions to ACC, according to the college. He has bankrolled agri-business student capstone projects, his name has featured on program advisory committees, and he now has a seat in the innovation centre’s campaign group.
Tim Hore, dean of the college’s Russ Edwards School of Agriculture and Environment, called Redfern, “just a tremendous advocate for the college and supporter over the years.”
ACC said fundraising for the centre has topped $16 million and the institution continues to engage with government and potential private backers.
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The college is also communicating with the province’s Advanced Education, Skills and Development department, “working with them on the new programming and submitting our proposed programs into government,” Hore said.
The new facility is the centrepiece of the college’s campaign to up the ante on agricultural education. The ACC envisions 800 ag and ag-adjacent student spaces, up from around 300 today. New and more technical programs will be on offer, as well as existing programs.
Courses will be offered on sustainable and Indigenous food systems and there will be more intense focus on applied research. Future employers will have roles in developing curricula to aid in the transfer from student to workplace.
Hore has singled out programs like “mechatronics,” designed to accommodate the increasingly automated and technical agriculture and agri-food sector. Food systems and chemical technology have also earned special mention.
Some of those programs have already been launched. The school is offering its advanced agribusiness diploma on a cost recovery basis.
The program has attracted a number of international students, according to Hore.
“Industry has been extremely supportive of that one-year program just to … recognize that there is a wealth of experienced international talent,” he said.
“Assiniboine, through its advanced agriculture diploma, is giving those students and those immigrants the understanding of western Canadian agriculture and helping them to really be successful when they go out into the workforce.”
Redfern said he appreciates the opportunity to weigh in on ACC’s programming, and what he said has helped maintain the health of the ag sector and the communities that depend on it.
“We believe it’s produced graduates who, in fact, brought out not only the ability to provide curiosity and intelligence towards agriculture again, but it provided ones that were able to use technology and use information… In other words, how to use the science of crop production and to be able therefore to provide enhanced benefits to those that employ them.”
Redfern said he expects the centre will add to ACC’s strengths.
“We assume that the valued programs are going to be able to help us restructure agriculture in a sustainable way,” he said, using the example of the promised focus on applied research.
“Whatever direction we go to make sure that agriculture is viable in its own right is going to make us successful, and therefore I’m willing to invest in it.”
In late 2021, ACC put innovation centre’s price tag at $65 million. The project has overshot initial fundraising goals, which anticipated about $15 million in private contribution. The college hoped to secure government funds for remaining costs.
“We’re extremely optimistic with regard to the recognition of the opportunities that the Prairie Innovation Centre for Sustainable Ag will bring to Manitoba and the western part of the province,” Hore said.
The college has not announced a construction start date.
