Manitoba paper mill proposal receives federal support

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Published: September 14, 2012

Ag Canada investment | The pulp and paper plant will get $385,000

A proposed paper mill and an existing bioproducts centre in Manitoba has received a financial boost from the federal government.

Agriculture Canada will invest $385,000 in Prairie Pulp & Paper, which intends to build a wheat and flax straw paper mill in Manitoba.

Prairie Pulp & Paper produces straw based paper at a plant in India and sells its branded product, Step Forward Paper, at Staples stores in Canada.

The company will use the funding for further research and development of its paper products. If consumers respond positively to the straw-based paper, company leaders hope the success will attract investors for its proposed mill, which will cost more than $500 million to build.

Read Also

 clubroot

Going beyond “Resistant” on crop seed labels

Variety resistance is getting more specific on crop disease pathogens, but that information must be conveyed in a way that actually helps producers make rotation decisions.

“Step Forward Paper is the first paper of its kind to hit shelves in North America and the first step toward meeting more of our paper needs from straw,” Jeff Golfman, President of Prairie Pulp & Paper Inc., said in a news release.

Besides supporting straw-based paper, Agriculture Canada also invested $860,000 in the Composites Innovation Centre in Winnipeg.

The CIC helps develop and test materials for manufacturing, including biomaterials such as hemp, flax and wheat straw.

As an example, researchers at the centre have built car components, a motorcycle gas tank and bus doors out of hemp fibres.

“The support … will enable us to begin development of a global leading capability to rapidly determine the properties of natural fibres that is essential for their adoption by industry,” CIC executive director Sean McKay said in a statement.

In one of its most innovative projects, CIC scientists are working with a Calgary company, Motive Industries, to build an electric powered vehicle made entirely from hemp and other natural fibres.

A spokesperson for Motive Industries recently told the Calgary Herald that the company continues to work on the unique vehicle, called the Kestrel. It hopes to complete the project later this year.

About the author

Robert Arnason

Robert Arnason

Reporter

Robert Arnason is a reporter with The Western Producer and Glacier Farm Media. Since 2008, he has authored nearly 5,000 articles on anything and everything related to Canadian agriculture. He didn’t grow up on a farm, but Robert spent hundreds of days on his uncle’s cattle and grain farm in Manitoba. Robert started his journalism career in Winnipeg as a freelancer, then worked as a reporter and editor at newspapers in Nipawin, Saskatchewan and Fernie, BC. Robert has a degree in civil engineering from the University of Manitoba and a diploma in LSJF – Long Suffering Jets’ Fan.

explore

Stories from our other publications