A study to be released this month will reveal whether it makes sense to house under one roof several prominent agencies that develop and market prairie grain.
The study looks at the merits and drawbacks of developing an agricultural centre of excellence in Winnipeg with a number of potential tenants, including the Canadian Wheat Board, an Agriculture Canada cereal research centre, the Canadian International Grains Institute, the Canadian Grain Commission and the Canadian Malting Barley Technical Institute.
However, the findings are being kept under wraps until the date of their official release.
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“We’ll tell you that March 20,” said CIGI executive director Barry Senft when asked to share the study’s findings.
When interviewed last year, he noted that the centre of excellence could potentially offer one-stop shopping because it would feature many aspects of the grain industry, including plant breeding, market development, quality assurance and grain sales.
The need for such a facility may be more pressing for some agencies than for others.
Agriculture Canada last year revealed it wants to move its cereal research centre in Winnipeg to a different location in 2007. The research facility, which is a cornerstone of cereal crop research in Western Canada, is outdated and in need of either a new home or major improvements to the existing building.
Last month, Agriculture Canada’s director general for national science programs said a decision is still under consideration.
“I can’t tell you at this point how long that process is going to be before a decision is made,” Steve Morgan Jones said while in Banff for the annual meeting of the Prairie Registration Recommending Committee for Grain.
“If we don’t proceed with this larger scale project, we will obviously have to look at another solution for our building.”
Western Economic Diversification Canada and Agriculture Canada provided much of the funding for the study. Further support, either as money or as in-kind contributions, was to come from the wheat board, the malting barley technical centre and CIGI.
