The Current - Grist for the mill…

Episode Date: December 3, 2025

We grow a lot of wheat in Canada and export most of it. Could we do more value-added processing here? In central Alberta, that's the hope as a new flour mill gets built south of Red Deer.

I've been patiently yet anxiously dreading this moment. It is the end of Stranger Things. This is the show that started back in 2016. We get to watch these teenagers fighting supernatural forces. Now it's beginning its fifth and final season this week on Netflix. On Commotion, I talked to some of the smartest TV critics I know about all things, Stranger Things, and about how this show transformed the way that we watch television.

For this episode and more, you can find and follow Commotion with me, Alameen Abdul Mahmoud, on YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. This is a CBC podcast. Hello, I'm Matt Galloway, and this is the current podcast. In central Alberta, south of red deer, a big new flour mill is under construction, and farmers will soon have a new place to sell their grain. They're going to be able to deliver their wheat right off the combine, directly to our plant, and then they're going to be able to go to the coffee shop uptown,

and say that this bagel was made with wheat from my farm. From farm to bagel, the new mill means more grain will be processed here in Canada instead of being shipped out of the country. Some people argue this is the kind of value-added production we need more of as the trade war with the United States grinds on. The CBC's Alison Dempster joins us from Calgary with some grist for the mill on this story. Alison, good morning. Good morning, Matt. You made me say that, I will say. You went to visit the flour mill site.

Describe the scale of what they are building. Yeah, it's quite a change for the prairie skyline in this part of Red Deer County. The new grain silos are roughly 12 stories high. When I visited, the crews were pouring the concrete for the buildings where they clean and store the flour. And this mill will be able to grind about 750 metric tons of wheat a day, which is quite a lot. This is the part of the story in which you help us visual. that number, right? Right, of course. I thought you'd never ask.

But you'd need almost 20 semi-trucks to haul that amount. Or if you prefer to think in animal units, we're talking about five blue whales worth. That's a lot of wheat. Who is behind this project? One of Canada's oldest family-owned grain companies, Parrish and Heimbecker, their headquartered in Winnipeg, been around since the early 1900s. I met up with the president of P&H Milling at the construction site. Bruce McIntyre knows the business inside and out.

His grandfather was a baker, his parents too. One thing about being raised in the bakery was very helpful when I went to start working in the flour business. If there's ever a trouble with the dough, it's probably the flower guy's fault. So you've got to know that going in, the door. So now he's the flower guy, Matt. Which means there's a lot of pressure. I mean, on that family legacy, you don't want to be the bad flower guy. Why did the company want to build this new mill in Red Deer County?

Well, McIntyre says they like the location because it puts them close to farmers, the source, but also a market, Alberta's population is growing at a rate faster than other provinces, and the mill sits between the two largest cities, of course, Calgary and Edmonton. There was also a tax incentive from the Alberta government, so that didn't hurt. Now, the plans for this flour mill predate the current Trump tariff roller coaster, so those considerations weren't part of the original business plan. but for McIntyre, the moment we're in does add another dimension to this project. Especially when you have times when you get protectionism like what's going on with the U.S. and all the tariffs, you want to make sure you have food security.

You can't build a bakery unless you have flour. You can't build a restaurant and serve a hamburger unless you have a bun. And so it's a whole supply chain. We're kind of, you know, just near the beginning of it. The farmer is obviously the start of it. We heard earlier though. I mean, the pride in being able to go from farm to bagel,

what's this going to mean for farmers in the area? It's good news for them because they'll have a new market for their grain. I met up with Jim Wood. You go a hard red spring wheat. And that's the one the flour mill is going to use, isn't it? They will use that. He grows, wheat, oats, barley, canola, and raises cattle. And he explained that typically he'd haul what he grows to a local grain elevator.

Then it's loaded on a rail car that goes to the port of Vancouver. and from there it goes to places like China, Indonesia, and Japan. But with the new flour mill, he'll have another potential buyer for grain in the neighborhood. Well, I think the most important thing for farmers is to have a bit of choice of places to market our products. I'm hoping that I can be one of the first trucks to deliver into this facility. If I have the product they need, I'm going to be there next fall. But Wood isn't just thinking about next year's crops, Matt. He's also thinking about the bigger picture.

because not only is he running a farm, he's also the mayor of Red Deer County. Oh, wow. So how is he thinking about this project as mayor? Well, he sees the flour mill as a way to shore up the local economy. He argues that at a time when there's so much volatility, you know, between Chinese tariffs on canola products and the trade war with the U.S., it just makes sense to do more of our own food processing. You know, day to day, I wonder, well, is there going to be a tariff on cattle? Are they going to put a tariff on our grain?

You know, we all kind of wondering, we don't know. I mean, I don't think, honestly, that sometimes the White House knows day to day. I don't know if I can say that on radio, but I did it. And it's frustrating. And so I think if we can create certainty locally, I think that's extremely important. So for Red Deer County, the mayor envisions spin-off jobs, bakeries, and other food manufacturing in the area. And so the mill would be a key part of that puzzle. How much milling? I don't know this. How much milling does Canada do?

There are more than 50 mills in Canada. Almost 10% of the wheat grown here is milled here. And that hasn't changed all that much over the last decade. Why aren't there more? Well, we grow a lot of wheat mesh, more than we can consume as a country. So Canadian farmers grew 36.6 million tons this year. We typically export about three quarters of that. Canada is actually on track to be the third largest exporter in the world. this year. So as one farmer put it to me, we're a powerhouse as far as grain production goes. And while the folks I talked to supported upgrading it, processing more of it, they also pointed out that there are good reasons why we export so much of the raw product. Derek Bruin heads up the Department of Agribusiness and Agricultural Economics at the University of Manitoba. Flowers less stable than wheat, so most of the places in the world will bring the wheat in and do the

milling in their home country. If the consumer actually wants the wheat and wants to mill it where they are, we have to kind of consider what the consumer wants. There's reasons within the supply chains why it makes sense sometimes to do the processing closer to the consumer. So Bruin says the international market is key, and it's diverse. Canadian wheat is exported to more than 80 countries. But still, there are people calling for a different kind of diversification in the agri-food sector, including a venture capitalist, a lot of Canadians will know from the Dagen's den, Arlene Dickinson. All right. What's Arlene's pitch? Well, she says Canada has been complacent, that's the word she used, about commercializing our agricultural commodities. And she argues we don't

want to miss the moment. We have so much that the world is looking for right now. You know, food security is a big deal. It's not just a big deal. Here, it's a big deal globally. And so, you know, Canada is really well positioned to be able to supply the world with food, not just commodities, but actual production, manufacturing, and processing of food. It has so much opportunity to really add, you know, billions and billions of dollars to our economy. And the globe wants it. We just need to get our act together and start focusing on it. What does getting our act together look like in the view of Arlene Dickinson? Well, one example is a capital fund. She founded called District Ventures. It's aimed at helping entrepreneurs get food and beverage products off the ground.

So everything from gluten-free pastas to high-protein pancake mix, Dickinson says building an agri-food business involves a lot of moving parts. You need to have, you know, ingredient supply, you need to have the manufacturing or co-packers. You need to have retailers, distributors, brokers, consumers, branding market. You need a lot of things happening. And so that is more complex than selling a commodity on itself. is. But I think we're starting to recognize that there's real value in Canadian goods. Canada is very well positioned, I see. And so she sees a huge opportunity. What does she think we need to do to

capitalize on that opportunity? Well, she has a wish list for Canadian politicians. Among the things she's calling for, faster approvals process for food products, better marketing for the Canadian brand internationally, and investment in processing. So that's where facilities like the new Flower Mill in Red Deer County come in. It's expected to be up and running next fall. The mayor hopes it is the start of other ventures. So this is his own field of dreams, Matt. If you build it, they will grow.

He hopes. Nicely done. Allison, thank you very much. You're welcome. Alison Dempster is our producer in Calgary. This has been the current podcast. You can hear our show Monday to Friday on CBC Radio 1 at 8.30 a.m. At all time zones, you can also listen online at cbc.c.com. slash the current or on the CBC Listen app or wherever you get your podcasts.

My name is Matt Galloway. Thanks for listening. For more CBC podcasts, go to cBC.ca slash podcasts.