“It’s a very bold vision, but yeah, it’s my vision,” she said. “Why not? We have a short growing season and we have so much talent here. We have quite a lot of resources already available in Winnipeg.”

Why it matters: Vertical farming, which stacks crops in climate controlled conditions for maximum growth and space efficiency, can give remote communities access to fresh vegetables year round.

Semenchuk started her company, The Little Greenhouse That Could, to help facilitate her vision.

Despite the name, the company has no physical greenhouse. As a consultancy for those interested in setting up vertical farming operations, the crop she grows is future farmers and farm business. Her goal is to establish a cluster of people who have bought into the business model in Manitoba.

“I genuinely think that if enough people got on board, we could definitely make it a vertical farming capital,” said Semenchuk.

“But we might not. I’m OK with making a bold vision that doesn’t come true because, at the end of the day, it’s not up to me if Manitoba becomes this capital. It’s going to be based on whether we get enough community buy-in. My company alone would not be able to do that.”

Planting seeds

The idea took root during the pandemic. Semenchuk had previously been interested in sustainable development and the adoption of new technology in the face of climate change, and the pandemic heightened her concern around food security.

At the time, she was working as an environmental engineer but was looking to make a change.

“I was walking around one day and I just kept thinking, ‘I wish that there were greenhouses everywhere.’ So I decided to just quit my job and start up a greenhouse business,” said Semenchuk.

“I didn’t really know anything about greenhouses or vertical farms, but I was just like, ‘OK, I’m just going to learn, and I’m just going to do this.’”

To build her knowledge of vertical farming, she went back to school for her masters degree at the University of Manitoba. Her thesis topic looked to validate an energy model focused specifically on vertical farming, and her studies included the design, construction and operation of a working vertical farm on the university campus.

“That’s where my research work comes from,” said Semenchuk.

Operating under the department of biosystems engineering, the farm in the university’s Sustainability in Action Facility is housed in an enclosed structure with no natural light. Plants are stacked vertically, with photosynthesis facilitated through LED lighting rather than sunlight.

“We’re focused on leafy greens right now at the U of M, but that’s just because we’re just getting the first farm started,” Semenchuk said. “It’s easier to validate that your systems are working correctly with leafy greens because they have a faster growth rate.”

The university is also pursuing a second hydroponic system that will feature larger plants like tomatoes and peppers. Eventually, they hope to expand to other crops and berries.

Semenchuk brought her message to Government House at the Manitoba Legislative grounds on April 9 during a special speaking event.

“The event was great,” she said. “I really enjoy talking about the work that I’m doing in research, community work and the projects that we’re doing through Little Greenhouse. It was really great to engage with the community, especially on the research side of things. It was an opportunity to share what kind of research is happening at the U of M.”

One project involves collaboration with Siloam Mission to establish a small, vertical farming operation.

“They can use the wall to grow produce for people in their shelter and they can sell extra produce to their volunteers,” she said, adding that the project could also impart useful skills for those using Siloam Mission’s services.

“They can train people who are using their shelter to become vertical farmers.”

Buy-in

A number of vertical farming operations have already established in Manitoba. Harvest Today is a U.S.-based company with a facility near Winnipeg, where it grows produce under “vertigation”— walls of plants grown under artificial light in peat cups, fed by a vertical system of water and nutrition.

However, the company’s main business is selling modular vertical farming systems. It has gained an international customer base, including communities in remote areas that could benefit from locally grown produce options.

The company took its system to the Innovations Showcase of Manitoba Ag Days last year. Like the farm at the U of M, it was focused on leafy greens but had plans to expand into other produce.

Plans have also been announced to retrofit Brandon’s McKenzie Seeds building into a massive vertical farming operation under the auspices of Brandon Fresh Farms.

The business model for vertical farming does face challenges. There is an expanding bubble of entrants into the sector globally but bubbles tend to pop when faced with the realities of making the concept profitable.

Many early (and now failed) vertical farming operations “were started by people who had no agricultural background whatsoever,” Thomas Graham, University of Guelph assistant professor and PhytoGro research chair in controlled environment systems, told the Co-operator last year as part of an analysis on the rise of vertical farming in Canada.

“They loved the idea, they were sold on it, and they threw a bunch of money at it. That was one issue.”

Advances in indoor lighting have made vertical farming more feasible, he noted at the time, but energy consumption remains a wrinkle.

“The vertical farming sector right now is at a point where leafy greens, baby greens, microgreens, etcetera, are all certainly economically feasible right now, and a good number of the farms are actually finally making money with those crops,” he said. “But you’re never going to feed the world on lettuce.”

The next steps

Semenchuk plans to continue outreach efforts and set up more vertical farm projects.

“I’m taking steps towards getting more projects and getting more vertical farming initiatives happening in Winnipeg, which will help achieve that vision,” she said.

Her immediate goal is to grow her brand awareness and undertake community engagement initiatives like the April 9 speaking event.

“The more people know and are educated about the benefits of local food production, the more support we’ll get for getting small-scale projects going and the more support we’ll get for research into vertical farming,” said Semenchuk. “It’s kind of like a snowball.”

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Production Lareault, based on just over 450 acres at Lavaltrie, Que. — about 40 km northeast of Montreal, in the province’s Lanaudiere region — has been acquired by investors Antoine Casimir and Andrea Borodenko for an undisclosed sum.

The Lareault business produces multiple varieties of early-, mid- and late-season strawberry plants for commercial-scale, greenhouse and U-pick growers and garden centres as well as for backyard and balcony use.

The company also sells various varieties of raspberry, high- and lowbush blueberry, blackberry, cherry, haskap and other berry plants as well as asparagus and rhubarb, among others.

Owner/operators Luc and Lyne Lareault plan to retire from the business that’s been in family hands since 1953.

Casimir and Borodenko are the husband-and-wife operators of Greenlore, a Montreal venture capital and private equity firm with a focus on businesses in the agriculture, food and e-commerce sectors that are seeking partnerships for their growth or succession-planning phases.

Casimir was also previously a principal in Quebec private equity firm Novacap, with a focus on companies seeking either growth or exit strategies, while Borodenko previously worked for Montreal digital marketing firm Mediative.

The acquisition was backed with loans from Quebec pension fund Fonds de solidarite FTQ, financial co-operative Desjardins Group and Farm Credit Canada (FCC).

“The support of our financial partners was crucial to the deal’s success and to keeping the head office in Quebec,” Casimir and Borodenko said jointly in Thursday’s release.

“We are also delighted that all the employees will remain and that we can count on the support of Luc and Lyne Lareault to facilitate the transition,” they said. “Lareault is an excellent platform for our future projects, which will leverage the company’s enviable reputation for quality and innovation.”

Business transfers are a “major challenge” for small- to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), Fonds de solidarite FTQ CEO Janie C. Beique said in the same release, adding that “solutions exist for entrepreneurs who want to ensure the future of the company they’ve built and for buyers who want to contribute to our local economy.”

Desjardins vice-president Jean-Yves Bourgeois, in the same release, described the deal as
“excellent news for the agri-food sector,” adding that “a good plan, developed well in advance, helps owners anticipate how they will transfer the business to the next generation. But beyond purely financial matters, buyers and sellers need to be guided on a human level during this critical period.”

Luc Lareault, who will remain with the company through the transition, described the new owners as “dynamic Quebecers who know the market very well” and have “several meaningful projects in mind for the future.”

— Glacier FarmMedia Network

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Bill C-234, which passed the House of Commons in late March, remained on the Senate’s order paper for debate Wednesday afternoon, after adjournment Tuesday night without a vote on third reading of the bill — nor a vote on a proposed amendment from the Independent Senators Group (ISG).

The new amendment, put forward Nov. 9 by Ontario Senator Lucie Moncion — an ISG member appointed to the Senate in 2016 by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau — would amend the bill’s proposed sunset clause so that after eight years, approval for an extension would require Parliament to pass a new bill.

Marc Gold, a non-affiliated senator who serves as the Liberal government’s representative in the Senate, was among those speaking Tuesday in favour of Moncion’s amendment.

Gold said that without Moncion’s proposed change, a review and extension of the bill’s proposed farm fuel exemptions beyond eight years “could proceed with a simple resolution passed in both chambers or by a decision of the executive branch, with no role for parliamentary scrutiny and oversight or committee examination and study.”

Senator Don Plett, leader of the opposition, called Moncion’s proposed amendment “frivolous” and said C-234, as was passed in the Commons, would already allow for a further extension to be initiated — and the length of that extension determined — only by the government, via an order-in-council.

A further extension also wouldn’t be granted unless approved by both the Commons and Senate, he added.

As written, C-234’s language for extending the time frame of its sunset clause “is not unique to this bill,” he said, citing a similar sunset clause for rail interswitching provisions in Bill C-30, the Fair Rail for Grain Farmers Act.

Rather, Plett said, by forcing a Senate-amended C-234 back to the Commons, “the only utility of this amendment is to carry the (Liberal) government’s water and defeat the bill.”

‘Intimidation’

Debate on C-234 was to continue Tuesday evening but Quebec Senator Raymonde Saint-Germain, also an ISG member and Trudeau appointee, rose at that time on a question of privilege, citing an incident on Nov. 9 which she said infringed on senators’ privilege “to conduct our business free from obstruction and intimidation.”

At the Nov. 9 session, she said, ISG Senator Bernadette Clement’s motion to adjourn debate on the proposed amendment was met with some Conservative senators “demonstrat(ing) physical and verbal intimidation directed at members of my group and myself.

“After violently throwing his earpiece, (Plett) stood before Senator Clement and me as we sat at our desks, yelling and berating us for proposing this routine motion that would see debate resume the following week, when we returned,” Saint-Germain said, adding that another Conservative senator, Michael MacDonald, shouted the word “fascists” at ISG senators.

Later, Saint-Germain said, “at least two” Conservative senators retweeted a post on social media platform X “that not only spread misinformation about the proceedings but encouraged members of the public to call and harass” Clement and Senator Chantal Petitclerc, adding that it “elicited high volumes of threatening phone calls and emails to these independent senators.”

Clement, speaking Tuesday evening to Saint-Germain’s question of privilege, said “Canadians deserve to know that adjournment doesn’t mean a bill is being nixed, but that nuanced explanation wasn’t offered by people pointing the finger at me.”

Senate Speaker Raymonde Gagne noted some senators who had been mentioned in Saint-Germain’s question of privilege weren’t present Tuesday evening, and said she would hear “brief additional arguments” on the matter on Thursday.

However, Conservative Senator David Wells then put forward a separate question of privilege stemming from the same Nov. 9 sitting, saying Moncion had “walked over from her seat and accused me of bullying” after the session was suspended.

Such an action, he said, “creates an atmosphere that may hinder any senator from even contemplating engaging in free debate, lest they be accused of bullying.”

Moncion replied that she was not threatening in her approach but wanted to call attention to a separate tweet from Wells alleging that Gagne, as speaker, “in concert with the ISG leadership has shut down debate” on C-234.

“Receiving a point of privilege was disappointing, but I understand where you’re coming from,” she said. “You want an apology from me, I apologize, Senator Wells, and I apologize in front of this whole chamber.”

Asked by Gagne if he wished to pursue the matter further, Wells replied that “given the debate and the open discussion we’ve had as well as my professional and personal regard for Senator Moncion, I consider this issue closed.”

Debate on Moncion’s amendment resumed briefly before the Senate adjourned for the day at 11 p.m. to resume at 2 p.m. ET Wednesday. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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“It’s a little bit surreal, because we’ve been at it for such a long time, but at the same time, we’re all so ready,” said Maria Deschauer, managing director of Vermillion Growers.

Why it matters: The facility has been noted for its use of technology, including a water reclamation system, digital controls and sensors and structure designed for efficiency.

July 27 marked the grand opening of the company’s state-of-the-art greenhouse in northwestern Manitoba. The event comes after seven years of planning, raising capital and building, according to Deschauer.

Construction began in August 2022. The previous year was dedicated to laying down 18 kilometres of underground pipe and conduits.

The first tomato plants will go in at the beginning of September, Deschauer added.

Vermillion Growers plans to raise tomatoes hydroponically. The small plants put in this fall will grow and produce all winter, then be torn out and replaced next summer. The first crop is expected to yield around 10 million pounds (4.5 million kilograms, or 4,500 tonnes) of tomatoes on the vine — groups of still-connected tomatoes sold at supermarkets.

It sounds like an enormous quantity, but it’s a “very, very small percentage,” of the tomatoes Canadians eat, and will only displace a few per cent of what is typically imported, Deschauer said.

In 2019, Canada produced about 270,000 tonnes of tomatoes and imported nearly 60,000 tonnes, mainly from the United States and Mexico, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada data shows.

The Dauphin company will be working with distributor Red Sun Farms, which has connections with grocers like Loblaws and Federated Co-operatives Ltd. Its tomatoes will be sold in Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta, according to Deschauer.

The site will require 30 to 34 full-time employees, she said. At the moment, about 60 per cent of their workforce is composed of newcomers from Ukraine.

Vermillion Growers also has plans to expand up to 70 acres of growing space, allowing it to grow more varieties and eventually add cucumbers and peppers. This could require up to 210 workers, said Deschauer.

The company is partnering with Assiniboine Community College to give practical learning experience to the school’s horticulture students. Then it may be able to offer jobs to those students.

In 2020, Vermillion Growers told the Co-operator it had chosen the location because it’s within a half-day drive of Winnipeg, Regina and Saskatoon, putting it in range of major grocery distributors.

The community was also supportive, Deschauer said in a July 25 interview. Community members helped fund the company through the province’s Small Business Venture Capital Tax Credit program, which gives a tax credit of up to 45 per cent to individuals and corporations who back Manitoba startups.

Vermillion Growers raised about $3.5 million through that program, Deschauer said.

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Bill C-234, a private member’s bill sponsored by Ben Lobb, the Conservative MP for the southern Ontario riding of Huron-Bruce, passed third reading for adoption in the House of Commons on Wednesday by a vote of 176-146.

The bill, introduced in February last year, amends the federal Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act to extend the carbon price exemption for farmers’ eligible fuel purchases to also include purchases of marketable natural gas and propane.

The bill also expands the allowed uses of exempted fuels, to include grain drying systems as well as heating or cooling of farm structures directly involved in livestock or crop production, such as barns or greenhouses.

C-234 also includes a sunset clause which will see the exemption brought back in eight years for review, allowing whatever government is in place at that time to let it lapse — or to amend or extend it, if new technologies available at that time don’t yet warrant ending the exemption.

Private members’ bills — legislative and policy proposals brought forward by individual MPs rather than the governing party — rarely pass in the Commons but are more likely to gain traction in a minority government. A previous version of C-234, Bill C-206, died on the order paper before the 2021 federal election.

C-234 also drew support from several farmer and commodity groups, including 15 national organizations speaking under the banner of the Agriculture Carbon Alliance (ACA), a policy group set up in 2021 “to ensure that Canadian farmers’ sustainable practices are recognized.”

The ACA, on Twitter Wednesday, called the bill’s passage in the Commons “a huge step towards realizing the full potential of #CdnAg.”

Keith Currie, president of the Canadian Federation of Agriculture — an ACA member group — thanked Lobb and supporting MPs on Wednesday on Twitter, adding “Now let’s get it through the (Senate).”

Canadian Canola Growers Association vice-president and ACA chair Dave Carey on Wednesday also credited Lobb’s fellow Conservative MP John Barlow, Liberal MP and Commons standing ag committee chair Kody Blois, NDP ag critic Alistair MacGregor and Bloc Quebecois ag critic Yves Perron for “outstanding leadership” on the file.

In a separate release Tuesday, Andre Harpe, chair of ACA member Grain Growers of Canada, said that “by extending the exemption for qualifying farming fuels to natural gas and propane, this amendment will unlock innovation and drive sustainable growth in the sector.”

“Farmers incur a carbon price when using natural gas and propane for necessary farming practices such as grain drying, land irrigation, and heating or cooling their barns,” GGC said in Tuesday’s release. “As there are no viable alternatives, pricing these activities does not provide a signal to lower emissions from these sources.”

C-234, GGC said, “will allow farmers to invest in practices that drive innovation and new efficiencies that reduce fuel usage by putting money back in their hands.”

MORE READING: Finding ways to maximize grain drying efficiency

The eight-year sunset clause was added at the standing ag committee last November. That clause, Barlow said at the time, is a reflection of Canadian farmers’ confidence that new and sustainable technologies will come forward to replace the gas- and propane-fired options they now use to dry grain and heat barns.

Separately on Wednesday, the federal government announced $22.2 million has been allocated to another 45 projects under its Agricultural Clean Technology (ACT) Program – Adoption Stream, related to “adopting more efficient grain drying technology.”

That brings the adoption stream’s allocations so far to over $37.1 million across 99 grain dryer projects across Canada, the government said in a release.

The adoption stream of the $495.7 million ACT is budgeted for $60 million in all, including $50 million for purchase and installation of more efficient grain dryers and $10 million for “fuel switching initiatives.” — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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C-234, a private member’s bill sponsored by southwestern Ontario Conservative MP Ben Lobb, appeared before the Commons’ standing committee on agriculture and agri-food on Monday and was reported back to the Commons.

According to Grain Farmers of Ontario (GFO), the bill — which had its first reading Feb. 7 and second reading May 18 — is now expected to come up for third reading during the House’s winter session before moving on to the Senate.

C-234 carries amendments to the federal Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act which expand that legislation’s definition of eligible farming machinery to include grain dryers as well as barn heating and cooling systems, and which extend the exemption for farming fuels to include farmers’ purchases of natural gas and propane.

“This exemption is needed to reflect the realities of the entire Canadian agriculture industry and the undue financial burden the carbon tax places on all the necessary practices undertaken by farmers and ranchers like drying grain, irrigating crops, or heating and cooling livestock barns,” Conservative MP and opposition ag critic John Barlow said in a release Wednesday.

The standing ag committee on Monday did pass several amendments to Lobb’s bill, tightening its scope.

Those include a sunset clause — which Barlow said is a reflection of Canadian farmers’ confidence that new and sustainable technologies will come forward to replace the gas- and propane-fired options they now use to dry grain and heat barns.

That sunset clause will see the exemption brought back in a set period of time for review, allowing whatever government is in place at that time to let it lapse — or to amend or extend it if the available technologies don’t yet warrant ending the exemption.

Barlow’s original amendment called for a 10-year sunset clause, but committee members later voted to shorten that period to the bill’s eight-year anniversary — citing testimony the committee heard suggesting such technology would be available sooner rather than later.

Another approved amendment will limit the exemption’s use in farm buildings, to only include those structures directly involved in crop or livestock production, such as barns or greenhouses.

‘Critical issue’

Grain and livestock producer groups have since lined up to cheer the bill’s return to the Commons, urge MPs of all parties to approve its passage and call for Canada’s Senate to do the same.

“It is clear that (ag committee) MPs understand the lack of current alternatives for grain drying and the need to provide an exemption until viable technological solutions are developed,” GFO chair Brendan Byrne said Tuesday in a separate release.

With “no viable fuel alternatives” available for the practices covered in C-234, imposing carbon pricing on those activities “does not provide a signal to lower emissions from these sources,” Grain Growers of Canada said Wednesday in another release.

Instead, GGC said, C-234 “will put money back into the hands of farmers so that they can continue to invest in practices that drive innovation, further efficiencies and reduce fuel usage.”

“With rising input costs, inflation and supply chain shortages, carbon surcharges on necessary farm activities adds an additional burden and pulls capital away from critical investments,” GGC chair Andre Harpe said in the same release.

The Agricultural Carbon Alliance, a body representing the GGC and 14 other national-level grain, livestock and general farm groups, said Wednesday that with the bill approaching third reading, it now plans to launch a public advocacy campaign “that will call for a bipartisan consensus on this critical issue.”

Fram group representatives appearing before the ag committee echoed many of the same concerns. “We understand that the carbon price is a market signal for producers to adopt low-emission energy alternatives wherever possible, but over the past year that signal has been dwarfed by skyrocketing costs for inputs such as fertilizer, gasoline and diesel,” Canadian Federation of Agriculture vice-president Todd Lewis said at the committee’s Oct. 24 meeting.

“Even when fuel prices aren’t at record highs, farmers constantly seek to increase fuel efficiency wherever possible.”

However, another speaker, University of Saskatchewan associate professor Tristan Skolrud, cautioned the committee at the same meeting that C-234 runs the risk of further drawing out the timeline for development of viable alternatives.

With “limited changes in producer behaviour, there will be limited reductions in (greenhouse gas) emissions from grain drying before greener alternatives become available,” he said.

“The development of greener alternatives will require significant private capital, and if grain drying is unregulated, the signal to private capital will be lost. Previous testimony on this amendment suggests that sufficient alternatives are at least 10 years away.

“Keep in mind that this estimate is a function of the carbon price. A higher price will shorten that time frame if private capital senses a profitable opportunity.” — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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Aurora Cannabis on Aug. 25 announced a subsidiary is buying a 50.1 per cent stake in Bevo Agtech, the parent of vegetable and ornamental plant producer Bevo Farms — which in turn is buying Aurora Cannabis’ Aurora Sky grow facility at Edmonton, to convert to “non-cannabis” use.

Publicly-traded, Edmonton-based Aurora said it had paid about $45 million cash to Bevo’s selling shareholders on closing of the deal, with up to another $12 million in Aurora stock to follow over the next three years depending on “certain financial milestones” being reached at Bevo’s Site One facility at Langley, B.C.

On the other side of the deal, Bevo is to pay up to $25 million to Aurora over time for the Aurora Sky facility — in Leduc County, near Edmonton International Airport — based on “certain financial milestones” being reached at that site.

Bevo is billed as one of the biggest suppliers of propagated vegetables — mainly tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers and eggplants — and ornamental plants in North America.

The company today grows greenhouse seedlings, field crop seedlings and floral plants on 63 acres of greenhouse space at Langley, Aldergrove and Pitt Meadows in B.C.’s Fraser Valley.

Bevo’s management team will remain “significant” shareholders in that company and will embark on a “robust” growth plan, including the use of Aurora Sky to grow orchids and propagate vegetables.

Aurora Cannabis, which has shuttered multiple production sites in several provinces in the recent years, had announced in May it would close the Aurora Sky site by its third quarter in 2023.

At that time, Aurora Sky — purpose-built in 2018 as the largest cannabis production facility in the world — was operating at just 25 per cent of capacity, the company said.

Aurora CEO Miguel Martin, in the company’s Aug. 25 announcement, said the deal with Bevo to repurpose Aurora Sky will save “significant costs previously expected in connection with the wind-down and sale of the facility.”

Aurora, he said, expects its investment in — and collaboration with — Bevo to “drive significant shareholder value and synergies for both parties.”

Bevo CEO Leo Benne, in the same release, said expanding into Alberta “allows us to significantly expand Bevo’s addressable market,” by boosting its production capability, extending its shipping range and accessing “new regional greenhouse demand” in both Canada and the U.S.

Also, he said, Bevo is “incredibly happy that the Aurora team is committed to keeping all of our facilities dedicated to our customer base, and to expanding our operations into Alberta through the addition of the Aurora Sky facility.” — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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The company also said it no longer plans to open a third greenhouse in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ont.

Canopy had said last month it aims to focus on reducing costs, as it struggles with a slump in weed prices from oversupply and growing expenses.

More than a year after Canada legalized recreational weed, most producers have failed to turn profitable because of fewer-than-expected retail stores and oversupply issues, while a cash crunch threatens the survival of many companies.

— Reporting for Reuters by Neha Malara in Bangalore.

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“Many of the cannabis producers are very cash rich. They’ve got the resources to pay a very good wage,” said Andrew Morse, head of the Flowers Canada industry group.

Canada’s greenhouse, nursery and floriculture sectors employ 16 percent of all workers in Canadian agriculture. The industry has been grappling with a tight labor supply for years, and the current record low national unemployment rate is compounding the problem.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government legalized cannabis in October 2018 and the industry has been rapidly expanding. The emerging sector, farm groups say, is posing a new challenge for traditional greenhouse growers.

The skills required for working in greenhouses – whether growing cannabis or flowers or vegetables – are similar.

Even before cannabis was legalized, the horticulture industry lost C$100 million ($76 million) after 2,800 jobs went unfilled in 2014, the Canadian Agriculture Human Resource Council (CAHRC) said, citing the latest data available. That gap is expected to grow to 7,500 workers by 2025, CAHRC said.

Ontario, Canada’s most populous province, is home to two-thirds of the country’s greenhouse, nursery and floriculture industry. The province’s flower sector is the third-largest in North America, behind California and Florida, growing about C$800 million in flowers each year, Morse said.

The lure of cannabis is not only a higher wage, but also the fact that it is a rapidly growing new industry, said Justine Taylor, a manager of the Ontario association that represents tomato, cucumber and pepper growers.

“It’s an exciting new field, it’s very attractive to young people, especially, (those) trying to get into the sector,” Taylor said.

Statistics Canada said last year that the cannabis sector was a “budding source of employment,” with some 10,400 workers in November 2018, just after legalization, a 266% increase from a year earlier. There is no cannabis labor data yet for 2019.

Last year, the average hourly wage for employees in cannabis-related jobs was C$29.58, almost 10 percent higher than the national average, Statscan said.

The most acute labor gaps are in middle management, Taylor said, so greenhouse operators are “putting a lot more resources into recruiting,” including overseas.

Greenhouses may also need to “lean more heavily on foreign worker programs or they might have to look for ways to incentivize the local population to take on more of those jobs,” Morse said. Foreign workers account for 28% of the sector’s employees, with many farms relying on a federal program that brings in seasonal, low-skilled labor.

Some farms are also making significant investments in automation technology to combat the labor shortfalls, he said.

Another knock-on effect of the cannabis boom is a shortage of tradesmen.

“We’re all kind of fighting for the same trades people, the same repair people,” said Linda Delli Santi, head of the Greenhouse Growers Association in British Columbia. “Even if you’re building a new greenhouse, getting all the trades on site are often difficult because those people are busy with cannabis operations, too.”

($1 = 1.3166 Canadian dollars)

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“I was always interested in the greenhouse business so when the acreage we purchased came with greenhouses it seemed like a good time to give it a shot. The structures needed a lot of work and upgrades and they are a work in progress, but we are working on doing so. Managing our time is a challenge occasionally, as Kendra is principal at Oak River School and I own/operate a mobile disc jockey business (Party Jockeys Music) so finding time for everything can be tricky,” said Travis.

They start the planning and ordering process in September, to make sure they can get their name in for all the products they need if they have to bring any in. From there, the planting/seeding portion of their business starts the second week in March.

“We encourage anyone who wants something special to let us know as soon as they can so we can have time to source it out, as some things can be trickier to produce than others,” said Walker.

“We have noticed an increase in demand for transplant vegetables. The growing season in Manitoba is short and increasingly unpredictable so having a jump-start on your garden seems to be a popular choice. We are already making a list of things we would like to introduce as transplants for coming years as well. We are basically annuals but over the past couple of years we have expanded into a few other items like shrubs, perennials, fruit trees, and planters,” said Walker.

The Walkers have opened a small retail greenhouse located at Travis’s family’s farm eight miles north of Holland on Highway 34. They do all the growing and raising of plants at their Rivers location but ship stock to Holland weekly to keep them well supplied. It’s a perfect fit for a second location as it is where Travis grew up and they knew there weren’t a lot of greenhouses in the area.

“The response at our Holland greenhouse has been great. We are providing the community of Holland for the first time with plants to beautify the town. This year we are also providing some of the plants for the town of Rivers. We have for the past two seasons provided product for a fundraiser run by the Rivers Kids club which seems to be well received in our area,” said Walker.

Kendra and Travis are enjoying their new venture and are looking forward to where it takes them. They find it a great opportunity to get to know the people in their new community.

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