A federal fund to help communities diversify from the asbestos business will help finance a major tractor manufacturer’s first facilities in Canada.
Navdeep Bains, the minister responsible for Canada Economic Development for Quebec Regions (CED), on Tuesday announced a “repayable contribution” of $350,000 for Mahindra Canada-Est to put up a 22,000-square foot industrial building at Adstock, Que., about 100 km south of Quebec City.
The company will “soon” open its first Mahindra farm tractor assembly and distribution centre in Canada, the government said. A company spokesperson wasn’t immediately available for comment Tuesday.
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The funding, coming through CED’s Canadian Initiative for the Economic Diversification of Communities Reliant on Chrysotile, will go toward the building’s construction and help boost occupation of the community’s industrial park, the government said.
Local media reported earlier this year that the Mahindra site will be set up in partnership with Bercomac, an Adstock-area company that makes after-market tools such as blades, mowers and snowblowers for tractors and all-terrain vehicles.
Quebecor’s news agency QMI in February quoted Bercomac officials as saying Mahindra’s tractors would come to Quebec by shipping container from plants overseas for final assembly and distribution from Adstock into Quebec, Ontario and Atlantic Canada.
Mahindra bills itself as India’s top tractor manufacturer and the biggest-selling tractor brand in the world by volume, selling into over 40 countries.
The Mumbai-based company’s businesses also include irrigation systems, crop input sales, construction equipment, industrial conveyors, armoured military vehicles and solar energy farms, among others. — AGCanada.com Network
