A canola crushing plant that was mothballed after its owner had financial troubles three years ago may be sold through a tax sale later this month.
Taxes charged on the plant at Ste. Agathe, Man., are $250,000 a year. The taxes are a year in arrears and the receiver has chosen not to pay them, said Bob Stefaniuk, reeve for the local municipality.
Stefaniuk said the tax sale may be called off if the court-appointed receiver, Richter and Partners Inc., decides to pay the taxes prior to the sale, which has been scheduled for Oct. 25.
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If the sale goes ahead, Stefaniuk is hopeful a buyer will come forward who could put the plant into production.
“I’m sure someone will buy it,” he said. “That’s my gut feeling.”
The plant was formerly owned by Canadian Agra, an Ontario-based company whose financial troubles became unmanageable in 1998.
At one time, Canadian Agra had also planned to build an edible oil refinery, a flour mill and an alfalfa pelleting plant at Ste. Agathe.
The canola crushing plant, which features cold-press technology to extract the oil, never reached full production. It was built in the mid-1990s and was expected to create about 55 jobs. Stefaniuk said the structure remains in excellent condition.
Ernie Sirski, president of the Manitoba Canola Growers Association, hasn’t heard of anyone willing to buy the plant.
When asked whether canola growers might band together to make the purchase, he said that is not in the cards.
However, like Stefaniuk, he would like to see the plant working. That would offer another option for canola growers selling their crop.
“It’s a shame to see a state-of-the-art plant like that sitting there idle.”
It might take some modifications, but the plant at Ste. Agathe could potentially crush a variety of crops, including canola, flax and hemp.
Sirski said a new owner would have to take into account the cold-press technology.
That process tends to leave more of the canola oil in the meal when compared to other methods of extraction. That means a premium would have to be found for the oil extracted, or some benefit would have to be found to justify the amount of oil left in the meal.
Canadian Agra had planned to process the canola meal into cattle feed.
Richter and Partners had prospective buyers looking at the plant in the past couple of years. There is speculation that a buyer may view the tax sale as an opportunity to buy the crushing plant at a bargain price.
Canadian Agra once suggested the value of the plant was $60 million. However, if a buyer comes forward, the selling price will likely be well below that.
