The Quebec company billed as Canada’s largest producer of strawberry plants has picked up new ownership after nearly 70 years. Production Lareault, based on just over 450 acres at Lavaltrie, Que. — about 40 km northeast of Montreal, in the province’s Lanaudiere region — has been acquired by investors Antoine Casimir and Andrea Borodenko for […] Read more
Major strawberry plant producer changes hands
New owners get funding to buy Lareault business
Internal dispute over privilege, bullying allegations ties up C-234
New amendment to farm fuel bill now under debate
A proposed amendment, and a dispute over senatorial behaviour, further geared down progress Tuesday of a federal private member’s bill to carve out a carbon tax exemption for grain drying and heating of barns and greenhouses. Bill C-234, which passed the House of Commons in late March, remained on the Senate’s order paper for debate […] Read more
Indoor ‘mega-farm’ in Calgary getting even bigger
While the facility is the same size, the growing area is being increased by a third and production doubled
Reading Time: 3 minutes An indoor mega-farm set to produce microgreens and baby greens just got even more mega. The facility that will house the “vertical farm” now under construction in southeast Calgary isn’t getting bigger but the growing space inside is jumping to 100,000 square feet from 74,000 previously. “We found, through further engineering, ways of further squeezing […] Read more
Carbon price exemption for farm gas clears Commons
Bill C-234 next headed to Senate
Legislative amendments that would exempt farmers’ eligible purchases of natural gas and propane from federal carbon pricing are now en route to Canada’s Senate. Bill C-234, a private member’s bill sponsored by Ben Lobb, the Conservative MP for the southern Ontario riding of Huron-Bruce, passed third reading for adoption in the House of Commons on […] Read more
Schoepp: With political will and good policy, you can accomplish a lot
The impressive growth in Quebec’s greenhouse sector is an example of what can be accomplished
Reading Time: 3 minutes This past year Quebec reached a milestone in being able to supply a full 50 per cent of greenhouse vegetables consumed in the province. The veggies that are widely grown in the province’s greenhouses are tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers and lettuce. I have been in vegetable fields and greenhouses throughout Canada and abroad, and the abundance […] Read more
New farm fuel carbon tax rule to return to Commons
Further carbon pricing exemptions clear ag committee, with sunset clause added
A bill that would exempt more farm fuels from Canada’s federal carbon pricing scheme has cleared the Commons’ ag committee and returned to the House of Commons to seek a third and final vote. C-234, a private member’s bill sponsored by southwestern Ontario Conservative MP Ben Lobb, appeared before the Commons’ standing committee on agriculture […] Read more
Aurora buys control of major B.C. hothouse veg firm
Bevo Farms to take over Aurora Sky cannabis production site
A major player in B.C.’s greenhouse vegetable sector is about to expand its operations into an Alberta cannabis grow facility — backed by a major investment from the plant’s owner. Aurora Cannabis on Aug. 25 announced a subsidiary is buying a 50.1 per cent stake in Bevo Agtech, the parent of vegetable and ornamental plant […] Read more
Winter has been banished in Sunterra’s high-tech greenhouse
Even when it’s 30 below, strawberries and tomatoes are thriving in state-of-the-art facility near Acme
Reading Time: 5 minutes Bright ideas and Ray Price go together like fruit and a greenhouse. As the president of Sunterra Group, which has an eight-store grocery chain (six locations in Calgary, one in Red Deer and one in Edmonton), Price is constantly seeking new ways to offer high-quality products to consumers. His latest venture is a 20-acre greenhouse […] Read more
Berry project aims to spark a boom in greenhouse sector
Year-round strawberry and tomato production could see fivefold expansion, says college
Reading Time: 2 minutes Local only applies to strawberries part of the year, but a new collaboration by Sunterra Group and Lethbridge College aims to change that. “Current demand for fresh, locally grown produce far outstrips the available supply in a market reliant on Mexican and U.S. imports for most of the year,” the college said in a news […] Read more
Unique partnership a triple play for Lacombe County greenhouse
Operation taps nearby natural gas for heat and power while capturing and using carbon dioxide
Reading Time: 3 minutes When it comes to running a greenhouse, one of the biggest costs is energy. But a partnership between Doef’s Greenhouses in Lacombe County and an Alberta energy company has changed that equation. “Generally oil and gas went about their thing, and agriculture went about their thing,” said Brad Murray, president of Horseshoe Power, which has […] Read more
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