The following notes represent a consolidated record of all group discussions held in Souris on February 16, 2006. The final Creating Opportunities report reflects the input received at this and other consultations held throughout Manitoba.

Opportunities | Supports | Entrepreneurship

OPPORTUNITIES

A number of value-added opportunities exist in Manitoba.

What opportunities exist for value-added business in this area?

• A heated arena for training of 4-H members in horse and beef clubs, etc, which could be set up as a co-op with boarding facilities for animals and/or people, an on-site trainer and ferrier.

• Marketing of existing facilities in local towns, such as the Souris Complex, perhaps in co-operation with Brandon for lodging facilities and hotels, or local bed & breakfast locations.

• Pet and animal care facilities, or mobile care.

• Handypersons to do jobs for acreage owners, to help transplanted urbanites live in rural areas and acreages, providing services such as painting buildings, mowing yards and snow removal.

• Christmas cakes using local ingredients.
• Glenlochar soup mixes
• Organic / natural beef
• U-pick strawberries
• Processing buffalo meat for jerky.
• Local abattoirs with urban retail outlets.
• Livestock, bio-energy, integrated bio-energy, livestock system.
• Corn / maize for pheasant feed in game farms.
• Niche markets
• Manufacturing of agricultural and production equipment.
• Construction of housing to meet demand created by jobs in smaller bio-energy businesses.

What is preventing the area from taking advantage of these opportunities?

• Lack of investment funds

• Lack of risk financing, equity financing.

• Need more flexible financing options.

• Financial models tend to be focused on larger models and use of debt financing (top down, not bottom up).

• Lack of available real estate.

• Tax breaks in Canada aren’t as competitive as in the U.S.A.

• Need for a return on investment dollars.

• Need loan guarantees for smaller diversification projects.

• Lack of operating funds

• Declining populations and incomes.

• Lack of human resources, specifically salespeople.

• Increasing travel costs

• Lack of time and volunteers due to increasing number of producers with off-farm jobs.

• Overtaxed volunteers

• Attitude of competitiveness between communities.

• Mindset that bio-energy projects have to be huge, corporate initiatives, with corporations taking the profits.

• Questionable businesses (grow ops)

• Need funding to research ideas and technology for using deadstock.

• Need to identify and make use of foreign research and models to move from ideas to businesses more quickly.

• Need to stop talking and start producing bio-diesel.

• Need on-farm ethanol production technology from Europe.

• Need to co-ordinate local water resources with bio-energy projects.

• Province needs to go to E20 standard with tax incentives to make on-farm ethanol production more viable.

• Need local, on-farm wind generation for anhydrous production.

• Province needs to be more supportive with economic development (helping plan new housing developments, etc).

• Difficult land use planning issues (agricultural versus non-agricultural uses).

• Need more flexibility in land use planning to allow for more housing options to respond to opportunities in specific areas (ex: creating housing developments in bush areas or other areas that do not have an impact on agricultural production).

• Rural municipalities face infrastructure costs when land is developed for housing in an area without services.

• Dedicated feed grain for feeding livestock is not required in the “new economy” model.

• The Canadian Wheat Board and Canadian Grain Commission need to work on accountability for specific genetic grain types.

• Need a “black box” system at elevators.

• Need to encourage livestock operations to use distillers’ grains.

SUPPORTS

Communities, industry and government can support value-added development in a number of ways.

What can the community and industry do to promote and support the development of value-added opportunities?

Which government activities would be the most effective in supporting value-added development?

• Reduce regulations and make them more flexible and user-friendly.

• Provide support to help people with regulations.

• Continued MAFRI commitment to re-organized structure (as opposed to Saskatchewan model).

• Making government employees available to facilitate community projects.

• Produce clear, well-researched policies that can be implemented at the time of announcement.

• Provide infrastructure to support value-added business.

• Adopt a business attitude.

• Welcome industry with open arms.

• Recover the cost of safer food from public, not producers.

• Support price stabilization.

• Provide support for the bio-diesel and ethanol industry that is on par with the support in the U.S.A.

• Support rural healthcare to keep seniors and people with special needs in rural communities.

• RRSP to MASC eligibility for rural housing.

• ENSIS-style model for local investment projects (venture capital).

• Support from Export Development Corporation (EDC) for managing export, foreign exchange, etc.

• Guaranteed contracts through EDC worked well and need to be brought back.

• Need government leadership, including bilateral agreements for exporting without having an artificial impact on markets.

• Municipal governments need to support local community development corporations (CDCs); MAFRI can help by cultivating this municipal support and facilitating the process.

• Increasing co-operation between municipalities and CDCs.

• Regional development corporations (RDCs) can play a larger role in supporting and building partnerships with local organizations.

ENTREPRENEURSHIP

Entrepreneurship drives value-added development and innovation.

What specific efforts or programs are currently being pursued in this region to support entrepreneurial development?

• Market gardening offers co-op potential for like-minded people, producing fruit and jams, using the Food Development Centre (FDC) to help with product shelf-life.

• Highschool apprenticeship program.

• Junior Achievement

• Agriculture in the Classroom (though not used often).

• “Green Stream” team in Pierson school.

• Woodlot Associations co-operate to investigate possibilities.

• Marketing clubs

• Economic development officers

• CDCs offer community works loan program, young entrepreneur program, Rural Economic Development Initiative (REDI).

• Turtle Mountain Sustainable Ventures

• 4-H

• Manitoba Agri-Ventures Initiative (MAVI)

• MAFRI business development specialists.

• Agri-Food Research & Development Initiative (ARDI)

• Manitoba Rural Adaptation Council (MRAC)

• FDC provides good support for new business ideas

• Nuffield Scholarship for exporting

How can entrepreneurial development be better supported?

• Investigate which services people need and are willing to pay for.

• Promote increased fees for a higher quality of work.

• Find ways for people who are busy during holiday seasons to keep busy all year.

• Study whether community has the skills needed to make ideas happen.

• Study methods of knowing and finding the market.

• Study what consumers want.

• Provide market intelligence.

• Publicize MAVI, and make it more responsive.

• Increase public awareness of available programs.

• Dedicate a budget to agriculture and diversification that is proportional to similar budgets in the U.S.A.

• Need an incubator or demonstration model businesses for different livestock and agricultural diversification businesses.

• Prepare a marketing strategy.
• Pursue collective efforts, such as websites and a Chamber of Commerce.
• Reduce requirements for ministerial approval of applications.
• Provide more streamlined, flexible programs.

• More leadership from MAFRI.

• Find out what is missing between the idea stage and getting a business going.

• Teach entrepreneurial skills in schools.

• Something similar to the “Future Farmers of America” program in U.S.A. schools.

• Promote a culture of entrepreneurship.

• All levels of government need to be more responsible for entrepreneurial development.

• Offer municipal incentives.

• More active cooperation between Association of Manitoba Municipalities (AMM) and MAFRI, via breakout sessions at AMM conferences.

• Support women with starting or expanding their businesses.

• More daycare

• Highspeed Internet.

• Encourage people to explore new opportunities, find out what is being done in other regions, provinces and countries.

• Province needs to force Manitoba Hydro to purchase power from private power generators, explore and support new bio-energy sources and to adapt a policy that encourages new initiatives.

• Need more research into methane collection and energy supply options.

• Need investment in processing to get Dauphin plant built, perhaps similar amounts to what is being put into CAIS.

• Need government price guarantees for cattle going into processing plants to encourage commitment by producers.

• Find sources of venture capital.

• Need money to make mistakes in order to learn from them.

• Need capitalism with a social conscience.