Bush Order Provisions has only been around for two years, but co-owner Kyle Thomas says the market garden and micro-bakery is no longer in its infancy.
He and his business partner would like to build a deep winter greenhouse, which would allow them to extend their growing season.
Such equipment isn’t cheap. That’s why Thomas says the business has outgrown the usual sums offered to producers in the NWT to support local agriculture.
“We’re at the point where we don’t need a little $5,000 here, $10,000 here,” he says. “To move us forward in a bigger way, we would look for a larger pot of funding to go after.”
If enough local producers share Thomas’s sentiments and make their voices heard, that could soon change. This year, the federal and territorial governments are reviewing their joint framework for funding agri-food projects in the territory. Residents have until March 31 to submit feedback on changes they would like to see to the Canadian Agricultural Partnership (CAP). The five-year framework, introduced in 2018, provides funding to local producers through various initiatives. Examples include up to $2,500 annually for marketing and promotion for agri-food producers, and up to $5,000 per year to help producers enter their products into new markets.
The CAP is funded 60-40, with the federal government chipping in $732,600 a year and the GNWT contributing $488,400.
The Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment (ITI) also has its own Northern Food Development program, through which it provides $550,000 in funding to support commercial farming, fishing and other similar industries with the goal of promoting locally grown or harvested food.
There were 16 farms registered in the territory by Census Canada in 2016. There are also 32 community gardens and 25 community greenhouses in the territory, according to ITI’s website.
Last year, the CAP experimented with offering larger grants to more established businesses. Three producers in the territory were provided grants collectively totalling more than $400,000 through the CAP. One of these was Hay River’s Polar Egg, which received $180,000 through the fund.
“We’ve had a broad, broad range of support over the years,” says Kevin Wallington, Polar Egg’s director of marketing and sales. “We’ve had business planning support, administrative cost support — if it’s for planning, if it’s for accounting, if we’re doing work on that front, they’ve given us support.”
Thomas says that at the time applications for this funding were being accepted in late 2020, his business was still in its infancy. However, “I think if they have that now, or if they keep that going, they might see more businesses, more community gardens grow from needing those small pots of money to growing to where they need those bigger investments,“ he says.
Although Wallington is happy generally with the support he receives from the territory, he says he would like to see similar grants offered to a broader range of businesses.
“I think (for) other businesses and people that are scaling up their business to have the same opportunity, and even more, would be excellent,” he says.
France Benoit, owner of Le Refuge Farm, says the funding is important to create a more self-reliant food system in the territory.
“In light of climate change and supply chain issues, the drastic increase in local food production must be prioritized if we are to feed ourselves, and I think we should,” she says.
“We are building a sector that’s in its infancy,” says Wallington “And so to see them put that kind of trust in this process as an agriculture sector, and to see the potential, is something that’s really encouraging for someone who’s been working in foods for the last 10 years.”