A canola crushing plant in northern Alberta that has been sitting idle
for five years will get a new life as a wood resin factory.
Finland-based Dynea Oy bought the former Northern Lite Canola Inc. site
from the Town of Sexsmith and hopes to produce resin by next year.
The resin from the Sexsmith plant will be used to glue together wood,
like oriented strandboard, at nearby wood processing plants.
Dynea Oy has manufacturing plants in 25 other locations, three of them
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“They were looking to relocate to the region,” said Carolyn Gaunt,
Sexsmith chief operating officer who has worked with the company for
more than a year to put the deal
together.
Originally, the town wanted to sell the crushing plant as an operating
canola plant, but could find no buyers. It took possession of the
crushing plant in lieu of back taxes when Canadian Agra Foods declared
bankruptcy.
There were more than $1 million in taxes owing on the property. It will
also cost the town more than $1 million for an environmental cleanup of
the site, said mayor Bob Rycroft.
Since the plant was opened in 1977, it buried a variety of waste at its
site, including toilets, granaries, canola meal and steel. Fifty-three
B-trains of canola were buried on the site after a fire. Canola meal is
more than one metre thick across the entire 15-acre site, said Rycroft.
“They buried everything.”
Rycroft hopes the provincial government will help pay for the cost of
the environmental cleanup since the province owned it from 1987 to 1994.
Most of the canola crushing equipment has already been sold by the
town. Dynea will use the buildings, rail spurs and ponds.
Because the plant will use a lot of water, there are concerns from
local residents it will suck local wells dry. Nearby residents had
water problems when the canola plant operated. Rycroft officials said
they soon hope to have a pipeline from Grande Prairie.
