Lethbridge College has been given $2-million by Ottawa to complete a new research facility and lab.
The Agriculture Research Innovation Facility is housed in what was called the Farm Stewardship Centre when it was operated by the provincial agriculture ministry. It was acquired by the college in 2022.
It will be home to seven research laboratories and also assist “small- and medium-sized ag-tech and agri-food producers in their efforts to start up and scale up operations and develop new market opportunities,” the college said in a release.
Read Also
Saving southern Alberta’s Bob Creek Ranch
The Waldron Grazing Co-op and the Nature Conservancy of Canada are working towards the conservation of the Bob Creek Ranch around the Cowboy Trail in southern Alberta.
The federal money is coming from Prairies Economic Development Canada – also known as PrairiesCan – a department created last year when it was spun off from Western Economic Diversification Canada.
The $2-million Lethbridge College grant was part of a series of funding announcements totalling $11.2-million that were made when the department’s minister, Dan Vandal, opened PrairieCan’s Lethbridge office. It also has offices in Calgary and Edmonton.
That sum includes $3.5-million for Lethbridge & District Exhibition for “state-of-the-art digitization of the Lethbridge Agri-Food and Trade Centre” and $242,000 to the Alberta Sugar Beet Growers to “evaluate new market opportunities.”
