Ag remains economic lifeblood

In January, Brandon hosted one of the most significant industrial events that happens in our province — Manitoba Ag Days.

The event results in a significant “tourism spend” in Brandon, filling every hotel room from Virden to Portage la Prairie, and leverages our Keystone Centre, which is built for events like this. It also helps to reinforce Brandon’s rightful place as the ag centre of Manitoba.

More importantly, it’s a great chance for the sector to come together, learn and do business. Like in many industrial sectors, we are stronger in agriculture when we work together.

The event also has philanthropic benefits. Ag Days Gives Back raises money for community projects, scholarships, Ag in the Classroom and other efforts. This year, fire response was a specific area of focus.

Assiniboine College also hosts an annual fundraising breakfast on site at Ag Days, raising money for scholarships. This year’s breakfast featured a conversation between Mazergroup’s Jon Mazer with new CEO Ben Voss as part of Jon’s Raising Dirt podcast.

Agriculture and food processing is Manitoba’s most significant economic sector, and that is amplified in Westman. According to the Observatory of Economic Complexity, wheat, pork and canola were three of the of the top five exports from the province in 2024, with pharmaceuticals and petroleum also finding a spot in the top five. Westman production figures prominently in the list, obviously.

As such, agrifood and food processing is a sector that our Grow Brandon alliance has chosen for an initial project.

We have assembled a group of representatives, including people from the private sector; people from Assiniboine College and Brandon University; leaders from Manitoba Economic Development and Agriculture; representatives from the Government of Canada through Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada and PrairiesCan; city economic development officials and the Brandon Chamber of Commerce to collaborate on efforts to strengthen the environment for value added food processing in the region.

The first step is to commission an analysis to identify opportunities to increase the participation of local suppliers, contractors and service providers in the food processing and manufacturing supply chain in Westman. This is to say, exploring if there is a way to improve service and reliability for our existing companies while simultaneously creating greater local economic activity here at home.

It just makes sense to try to build around our current assets.

We have a lot of talent in the ag sector in Manitoba. We also have lots of people working every day on farms, in industry, for non-profits, and in education and government to strengthen our ability have the strongest ag sector in the world. Grow Brandon is attempting to harness that talent and see where there are opportunities for collaboration and alignment that make sense.

At Assiniboine, we’ve long been Manitoba’s Ag College. In 2013, we made that a centrepiece of our strategic direction. We have seen many positive developments since that time:

• The creation of Russ Edwards School for Agriculture & Environment, which takes a field-to-fork approach that includes everything from civil engineering technology to agribusiness to the Manitoba Institute for Culinary Arts.

• Significant program expansion, creating more opportunities for learners and preparing more graduates for an industry hungry for talent.

• Western Manitoba’s largest fundraising effort to support the Prairie Innovation Centre for Sustainable Agriculture.

• The establishment of the Food Processing Centre and the Protein Pantry.

• One of the fastest growing applied research programs in the country, which this year helped Assiniboine crack the list of Canada’s Top 50 Research Colleges.

• A $5-million research greenhouse, now under construction, which was enabled by Assiniboine’s first-ever Canadian Foundation for Innovation grant and support through Research Manitoba.

The college is currently working hard, alongside architects (Number TEN Architectural Group) and construction management professionals (Bird Construction), to craft a plan that allows the Prairie Innovation Centre to move forward within this evolving cost environment. It’s critically important to the industry, the province and the college.

Premier Wab Kinew has been a champion of the project, highlighting it as one of Manitoba’s top priorities in his letter to Prime Minister Mark Carney that outlined our province’s top economic investment priorities. Hopefully, the prime minister is listening and brings the Government of Canada to the table with a sizable investment. This is not the time to let bureaucratic boxes get in the way of a project that aligns with so many federal public policy goals.

We need the programs, like chemical engineering technology and food science technology, that align so well with Westman’s priorities. We need the expanded applied research capacity it will offer as well.

The Prairie Innovation Centre will be a significant contributor to stronger Westman, Manitoba and Prairie agriculture. Time to get the job done.