A group in southwestern Saskatchewan isn’t waiting for the federal government to get its act together on ethanol expansion.
Cypress Agri Energy Inc. was one of the groups that put together a proposal for funding under the federal initiative last fall. The deadline was Nov. 19 and Ottawa has yet to make a decision on who gets a share of the $60 million.
But Skip Wilton, public relations chair for Cypress Agri Energy, said the group has gone too far to sit and bide its time.
“We’re going on as if there is no government money there,” he said last week from Shaunavon. “If it comes, it would help. We can’t sit and wait for two or three months.”
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The proposed 150-million-litre ethanol plant will cost $100 million. It would use 10 million bushels of CPS wheat each year.
The group has raised about $2.5 million and spent a chunk of that on its activities so far.
Originally Ontario-based Commercial Alcohols was to be an equity partner, but that changed with the federal government’s offer of money. Under the program, the Ontario company could be involved with only one proposal. It chose its own.
“We have just carried on,” said Wilton.
The prairie group has talked with a couple of Canadian banks, Investment Saskatchewan and some American management companies. Wilton said all have been impressed with the work done by Cypress to date.
The plan calls for 51 percent of the ethanol to be sold in Canada and the remainder to the United States. The number of plants going up south of the border doesn’t alarm Wilton.
“Even at the rate they’re going, they won’t be able to supply their market for at least 10 years.”
He added that the Cypress project is a perfect way for the new Paul Martin government to show its commitment to Western Canada.
