An invitation to move the Canadian International Grains Institute to Saskatoon from Winnipeg has stirred debate.
CIGI spokesperson Rex Newkirk confirms that the organization will move, but it may be only from downtown to another Winnipeg location.
“We’re just out of space,” the director of research and business development said in an interview. “We’re quite constrained by our space so we do need to go somewhere at some point.”
The Saskatoon Regional Economic Development Authority has suggested CIGI look at the agricultural companies and organizations already in Saskatoon and consider how it might fit.
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Chief executive officer Tim LeClair said the association did not approach CIGI with open chequebook.
“We’re not actively trying to take things out of Winnipeg,” he said. “There was no offer.”
Instead, he said the SREDA invited CIGI to consider its future in the next two to four years.
Staying in Winnipeg would be a foregone conclusion if a long-promised centre of excellence in grains research had been established at the University of Manitoba, Newkirk said.
The cereal research centre at the university is in poor condition, he said. Replacing it or upgrading it to a centre of excellence is necessary. Then, having various organizations working for grain farmers together in one location would make sense.
CIGI’s 35 employees occupy four floors in the Canadian Grain Commission building, within walking distance of major grain company offices.
In the past 40 years, about 35,000 people from 115 countries have attended courses at the offices, learning how to use Canadian grain in their own products.
Newkirk said being so close to the grain trade has allowed CIGI to draw upon the expertise of others and create the demand for its training programs.
“We’re just hopping right now,” he said.
But with the centre of excellence still not in sight, CIGI is considering options.
The Manitoba government has told Ottawa that the centre is a top priority, Newkirk said, but fiscal concerns present a challenge.
He said Saskatoon has good things going for it such as the agriculture college at the university, Innovation Place research centre and the university’s crop development centre.
Another possibility is establishing smaller microlabs at other locations. CIGI does a lot of work for Ontario farmers and a site in that province might be logical.
Funding from the Canadian Wheat Board stops April 1 but a temporary levy starts in August.
