Federal facility slashed | Group wants short-term lease and transition funding to continue the shelter belt program
There is still a glimmer of hope that a federally owned tree nursery at Indian Head, Sask., can be saved from the cost-cutter’s axe.
Norm Hall, president of the Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan, said a recently completed business report suggests the Agroforestry Development Centre (ADC) can be saved and maintained as a viable, for-profit business.
Hall said a coalition of farm groups and municipal governments known as the Western Canada Tree Nursery Coalition has already endorsed a plan to lease the facility from Ottawa for two to three years until it can be bought outright.
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The coalition comprises APAS, Keystone Agricultural Producers, the Alberta Federation of Agriculture, the Canadian Federation of Agriculture, the British Columbia Grain Producers Association and local governments in Alberta and Saskatchewan.
“What we’ve offered is that we will lease it, short-term, for two or three years (until the government can) bring the place to a saleable position,” Hall said. “Our business plan slash feasibility study says it’s doable, but we need to meet with the minister (Gerry Ritz) because this has to happen real quick.”
If a lease can be negotiated, the coalition will also be seeking transition funding from Ottawa and other sources to cover short-term operating costs. Hall did not say how much money would be required.
The coalition still hopes that tree sales made over the next few months will generate as much as $3 million, he added.
However, that will happen only if a lease can be negotiated immediately.
Seedlings and root stock at the facility must be harvested this fall, placed in storage, sold and distributed to buyers next spring if tree sales are to occur in late 2013 and early 2014.
Orders must also be taken and ground must be prepared for planting a new crop of seedlings next spring.
Harvest operations at the centre normally take place in September and October, but staffing levels at the facility have been reduced.
“There’s just a skeleton staff left out there now and, by the end of the month, there will only be five em-ployees,” Hall said.
“Normally out there, there’s 30 full-time employees and another 30 seasonal, so there’s not much chance of those (five remaining) employees doing the harvest.”
The federal government has al-ready begun the process of closing the nursery and selling its assets.
The shelter belt program was discontinued earlier this year, and while a small number of researchers still work at the agroforestry centre, field staff will be gone by Dec. 31 unless an alternative operating arrangement can be reached.
