Contract awarded for Buffalo Pound Water Treatment Plant
On May 26, Aecon Group Inc. announced that Graham-Aecon Joint Venture (a 50/50 consortium between Aecon and Graham Construction), has been awarded the design-build contract for the Buffalo Pound Water Treatment Plant Renewal Project.
The $273 million contract will see upgrades to the facility near Moose Jaw, Sask. that will both modernize and increase the facility’s capacity. Construction is expected to begin in Q2 2022, and complete in 2025.
“The Buffalo Pound Water Treatment Plant has been integral in providing reliable, safe and high-quality water to surrounding communities for decades and this critical project will ensure the facility has the capacity to meet the needs of growing populations,” said Jean-Louis Servranckx, president and CEO at Aecon Group Inc. “We look forward to working with our client and partner as we bring our industry-leading industrial and water infrastructure expertise to deliver this sustainable project.”
The Buffalo Pound Water Treatment Plant serves Regina, Moose Jaw, SaskWater, Buffalo Pound Provincial Park and other communities in the region, supplying water to over 260,000 people.
New fertilizer project announced for Rosetown
Protein Industries Canada, along with AGT Food and Ingredients Inc. (AGT Foods), Lucent BioSciences (Lucent), NuWave Research, IN10T and Aberhart Ag Solutions, are advancing a $19 million fertilizer project at Rosetown, Sask.
The project will see the commercialization of a new fertilizer product, Soileos, made from pea, lentil, and oat hulls that come from food processing. The Soileos product is a micronutrient fertilizer that increases crop yields and improves soil health.
“This project is an example of what happens when innovation and collaboration collide,” said Bill Greuel, CEO at Protein Industries Canada. “From a chance meeting in 2019, to a pilot project that produced 1 kg of Soileos a day and tested the effectiveness of pea, lentil and oat hulls through 2020 and 2021 and now to full-scale commercialization, this project proves how important innovation is to the long-term competitiveness and sustainability of Canada’s agri-food sector, and the commitment of the industry to sustainability and the environment.”
The product will be sold by AGT Soileos, a 50-50 venture between AGT Foods and Lucent.
“AGT Foods is pleased to join with our partners at Lucent to announce the commercial production of Soileos. AGT is a value-added miller of pulse crops and other grains that produces fibre by-products. To use these by-products to produce a micronutrient pellet that assists farmers in boosting their yield while at the same time returning carbon to their soil and reducing the need for nitrogen fertilizer application in the future years is ground-breaking innovation,” said Murad Al-Katib, CEO of AGT Foods. “As farmers meet the challenge of boosting the sustainability of their agricultural management systems, the smart use of fertilizer will be key to achieving meaningful reductions in carbon intensity of our cropping system.”
When the project is completed, it will produce approximately 6,500 tonnes of fertilizer annually, and create 25 jobs.
Above Food opens new processing facility in Saskatoon
On May 25, Regina-based Above Food Corp. opened its new gluten-free food ingredient facility in Saskatoon. The new Above Food Ingredient Centre is home to technologies for cleaning, sorting, polishing, blending, and formulating plant-based ingredients such as flours, starches, fibres and flakes.
“Our centre is world-class, representing what we at Above Food envision as the future of food,” said Mike Marshall, president of Above Food Specialty Ingredients. “It bolsters our specialty ingredients capabilities and enables us to help customers accelerate ingredient innovation. This is a significant growth opportunity for Above Food to expand our customer reach and bring more value to all crops in regenerative agriculture rotations.”
The Centre will manage bulk handling, with capacity to process over 100-million pounds annually – and high-velocity packaging capabilities.
“Above Food continues to strengthen, grow and evolve our seed to fork model in visionary ways that are industry-leading,” said Lionel Kambeitz, CEO of Above Food. “The Above Food Ingredient Centre allows us to meet the needs of our growing customer base, while remaining true to our vertically integrated platform. Our Specialty Ingredients division is immediately bolstered by the opening of the Centre, allowing us to handle products, ingredients and packaging of all sizes.”
This news comes on the heels of Above Food Corp.’s acquisition of Northern Quinoa Production Corp. (NorQuin), announced last week.
Luxsonic Technologies advances in Deep Space Healthcare Challenge
Saskatoon-based Luxsonic Technologies and its SieVRt Cardiac technology has been selected as one of 20 semi-finalists in the Deep Space Healthcare Challenge. The Challenge, led by the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) and Impact Canada, is a competition for innovative healthcare technologies for use in remote communities now, and eventually crews on long-duration space missions.
The 20 semi-finalist teams will receive $30,000 in prize money and advance to stage two of the competition. In stage two, the selected teams will “build a proof-of-concept that can generate data in a lab environment.”
Luxsonic Technologies is the only Saskatchewan team in the challenge.
Global Helium names new president
Calgary-based Global Helium Corp. announced May 24 that Jesse Griffiths has been appointed to the company’s board of directors and will begin transitioning into the role of president. Wes Siemens, the previous president, will remain as a director and advisor to the company. Griffiths has also made a $500,000 investment into Global.
“Jesse’s appointment could not have come at a more exciting time for Global. As we enter the United States through strategic acquisitions and start planning a significant drilling program in North America, we intend to make Global a helium production Company in the near future,” said Siemens. “As a significant shareholder of Global, I am excited to have recruited an aggressive, experienced operator in Jesse to help lead the Global team. As he transitions into the role, I will continue to actively fulfil a technical and operational function, where needed. Adding Jesse to the team is a big win for Global shareholders, who should expect significant and expedient progress.”
Griffiths was previously the founder and president of Crestwynd Exploration Ltd.
Global Helium holds 1,500,000 acres of helium exploration property in Canada, and recently expanded into Montana.
