Alberta
Hydroponic greenhouses becoming more popular in the North, but have limitations
INUVIK, N.W.T. — Greenhouses are becoming more popular in northern communities as a way to supplement available groceries and improve food security .
Some involve hydroponics, a higher-tech way of growing that doesn’t use soil. For example, the Inuvik Community Greenhouse has a hydroponic trailer parked out front, holding around 2,000 spaces for leafy greens and herbs grown year-round.
Co-ordinator Adi Scott said the produce supports the greenhouse’s weekly veggie box program with additional goods going to the food bank.
About a two-hour Canadian North flight away from the Inuvik greenhouse, just behind the Yellowknife Co-op, greens and herbs are being grown in a converted sea can.
The hydroponic greenhouse, which opened in February 2019, is fully automated, producing between 200 and 300 packages a week.
“The flavour degrades so quickly in perishable foods like leafy greens that having something that is available for sale within hours of being harvested is a totally different product than something that’s sat on a truck for two days to get up here,” said Jeff Kincaid, business development manager at the Co-op.
The Co-op’s greenhouse was manufactured by Growcer, a modular farming company that works with businesses, communities and schools to increase the availability of local produce across Canada.
Corey Ellis, co-founder and chief executive officer, recalls seeing the price of food on the shelves in Iqaluit during a University of Ottawa student club trip to the Nunavut capital.
“That was kind of the light bulb moment,” he said.
Ellis said Growcer has since installed around 75 vertical farms across the country and many projects are focused on capacity-building and training.
Some experts, however, are wary of high-tech growing as a solution for remote communities. Andrew Spring, an assistant professor at Wilfrid Laurier University and a Canada Research Chair in northern sustainable food systems, said it can be difficult to fix them if the parts have to come from far away.
Besides, hydroponics is generally used to grow greens, and “salad is not the answer to food insecurity,” he said.
What’s really needed from a food security standpoint are, broadly speaking, “things that go in stew,” he said — hearty produce that can be kept for longer, and that can go with traditional fish or game.
Kincaid, with the Co-op in Yellowknife, said while the hydroponically grown greens don’t replace food coming from the South, “it is a nice little bonus.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 21, 2023.
— with files from Rosa Saba in Toronto
Emily Blake, The Canadian Press
Alberta
Alberta government should eliminate corporate welfare to generate benefits for Albertans
From the Fraser Institute
By Spencer Gudewill and Tegan Hill
Last November, Premier Danielle Smith announced that her government will give up to $1.8 billion in subsidies to Dow Chemicals, which plans to expand a petrochemical project northeast of Edmonton. In other words, $1.8 billion in corporate welfare.
And this is just one example of corporate welfare paid for by Albertans.
According to a recent study published by the Fraser Institute, from 2007 to 2021, the latest year of available data, the Alberta government spent $31.0 billion (inflation-adjusted) on subsidies (a.k.a. corporate welfare) to select firms and businesses, purportedly to help Albertans. And this number excludes other forms of government handouts such as loan guarantees, direct investment and regulatory or tax privileges for particular firms and industries. So the total cost of corporate welfare in Alberta is likely much higher.
Why should Albertans care?
First off, there’s little evidence that corporate welfare generates widespread economic growth or jobs. In fact, evidence suggests the contrary—that subsidies result in a net loss to the economy by shifting resources to less productive sectors or locations (what economists call the “substitution effect”) and/or by keeping businesses alive that are otherwise economically unviable (i.e. “zombie companies”). This misallocation of resources leads to a less efficient, less productive and less prosperous Alberta.
And there are other costs to corporate welfare.
For example, between 2007 and 2019 (the latest year of pre-COVID data), every year on average the Alberta government spent 35 cents (out of every dollar of business income tax revenue it collected) on corporate welfare. Given that workers bear the burden of more than half of any business income tax indirectly through lower wages, if the government reduced business income taxes rather than spend money on corporate welfare, workers could benefit.
Moreover, Premier Smith failed in last month’s provincial budget to provide promised personal income tax relief and create a lower tax bracket for incomes below $60,000 to provide $760 in annual savings for Albertans (on average). But in 2019, after adjusting for inflation, the Alberta government spent $2.4 billion on corporate welfare—equivalent to $1,034 per tax filer. Clearly, instead of subsidizing select businesses, the Smith government could have kept its promise to lower personal income taxes.
Finally, there’s the Heritage Fund, which the Alberta government created almost 50 years ago to save a share of the province’s resource wealth for the future.
In her 2024 budget, Premier Smith earmarked $2.0 billion for the Heritage Fund this fiscal year—almost the exact amount spent on corporate welfare each year (on average) between 2007 and 2019. Put another way, the Alberta government could save twice as much in the Heritage Fund in 2024/25 if it ended corporate welfare, which would help Premier Smith keep her promise to build up the Heritage Fund to between $250 billion and $400 billion by 2050.
By eliminating corporate welfare, the Smith government can create fiscal room to reduce personal and business income taxes, or save more in the Heritage Fund. Any of these options will benefit Albertans far more than wasteful billion-dollar subsidies to favoured firms.
Authors:
Alberta
Official statement from Premier Danielle Smith and Energy Minister Brian Jean on the start-up of the Trans Mountain Pipeline
-
Canadian Energy Centre2 days ago
North America LNG project cost competitiveness
-
Business2 days ago
WEF panelist suggests COVID response accustomed people to the idea of CBDCs
-
conflict2 days ago
Columbia on Lockdown After pro-Palestinian Protesters Take Over Building, Hold Janitors Hostage
-
International1 day ago
NYPD storms protest-occupied Columbia building, several arrested
-
Addictions1 day ago
British Columbia to re-criminalize hard drug use in public after massive policy failure
-
Addictions9 hours ago
City of Toronto asks Trudeau gov’t to decriminalize hard drugs despite policy’s failure in BC
-
Alberta1 day ago
Protecting the right to vote for Canadian citizens: Minister McIver
-
Great Reset1 day ago
Middle school girls who refused to compete against male banned from next track meet