Rural Saskatchewan’s fortunes rest largely on how it can profitably use
starch, the president of Pound-Maker AgVentures told a Canadian Western
Agribition crowd recently.
The value-added opportunities exist, but Brad Wildeman said
Saskatchewan people have to change their attitudes and the perceptions
other people have of the province to turn opportunities into reality.
Wildeman operates the province’s only integrated ethanol plant and
feedlot, is president of the Saskatchewan Cattle Feeders Association
and chairs the Canadian Cattle Identification Agency. He also played a
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key role in developing the Action Committee on the Rural Economy report
to government last spring that outlined ways to revitalize rural
Saskatchewan.
Wildeman said Saskatchewan is too reliant on primary production.
Smaller provinces such as New Brunswick have a larger agricultural
value-added industry than Saskatchewan.
Recent growth in the feedlot sector, hog barns and the ethanol industry
are good first steps, but it has to go further.
He said the future lies in areas such as fibre, and bran
fractionalization, where different components of bran are broken down.
Pea protein is replacing fishmeal in aquaculture, while an ethanol
plant in Red Deer produces gluten.
Communities are looking at all these ways to use starch and keep people
employed.
Wildeman said access to capital is the largest impediment to growth.
There is a lack of new investors from outside the province and there
are real or perceived tax advantages to locating in Alberta.
“There is a perception that Saskatchewan is not friendly to business,”
he said, adding he talks to many businesses about locating in the
province. “They’re scared of our track record.”
But he also said Saskatchewan people have to get over their inferiority
complex and talk about why they can do things instead of why they
can’t.
He called on the government to implement tax credits for investing in
local value-added ventures.
“We have to identify what’s holding us back and we have to get rid of
them.”
Wildeman also said potential investors and builders should know ahead
of time which rural municipalities are friendly to intensive livestock
or other value-added development.
“We should develop a consistent set of guidelines,” he said.
He noted there is growing resistance to intensive livestock development
in southern Alberta, where most Saskatchewan cattle go to be finished.
That, coupled with the change in Saskatchewan farmland ownership laws
to allow non-resident Canadian ownership, could bring new investment in
the feedlot sector.
Saskatchewan and Manitoba together have 11 percent of Canada’s feeding
capacity.
“That’s a crime,” Wildeman said.
