L-R: Red Deer County Mayor Jim Wood, P&H Ltd. executive vice-president Lloyd Heimbecker, Minister of Agriculture and Irrigation RJ Sigurdson, P&H Milling Group president and COO Bruce MacIntyre, and Devin Dreeshen, minister of transportation and economic corridors and MLA for Innisfail-Sylvan Lake, turn sod at a new flour mill development. (rdnewsNOW/Ashley Lavallee-Koenig)

By Ashley Lavallee-Koenig

Agriculture

Springbrook flour mill approved for agri-processing tax credit

Sep 6, 2024 | 6:08 PM

P&H Milling Group has qualified for the province’s Agri-Processing Investment Tax Credit program, spurring the development of a wheat flour mill in the hamlet of Springbrook in Red Deer County.

The $241 million facility, which is already under construction, is expected to mill approximately 750 metric tonnes of wheat per day and create 27 permanent and 200 temporary jobs. A ceremonial sod-turning marked the beginning of construction on Sept. 6, and president and COO of P&H Milling Group Bruce MacIntyre says he hopes to be milling by fall 2026.

“The equipment has been ordered, and most of it is coming from Switzerland. It will be brought in and staged so as the mill goes up, the equipment will go in, and that helps speed up the process,” MacIntyre added.

Byproducts from the milling process will be sold to the livestock feed industry across Canada to create products for cattle, poultry, swine, bison, goats and fish. The new facility will also have capacity to add two more flour mills if demand for product increases in the future.

Having a milling facility located so close to the source, being Alberta’s high quality wheat farms, is expected to improve efficiency of the manufacturing process.

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“There’s going to be a large bagging operation and warehouse facility, and we’re going to be able to intermodal Alberta-made flour in bags from here and land them into southwestern Ontario more economically than we can actually manufacture in southwestern Ontario. We are Canada’s largest miller, so we’re not doing a bad job, but the economic advantage of having a facility like this here is super powerful,” explained Lloyd Heimbecker, executive vice-president of Parrish & Heimbecker Ltd.

To be considered for the tax credit program, corporations must invest at least $10 million in a project to build or expand a value-added agri-processing facility in Alberta. The program offers a 12 per cent non-refundable tax credit based on eligible capital expenditures. In the case of P&H Milling Group, the estimated credit value is $27.3 million.

“I think agriculture is one of the most exciting spaces to invest in right now in Alberta. To put it into perspective, over a matter of just under three years, prior to this year, we saw about $2.3 billion in investment in agri-processing and that’s way up. Our average was about $0.5 billion prior to that, and this year alone, we’re going to do $3.2 billion in agri-processing investment here in the province of Alberta,” said RJ Sigurdson, Minister of Agriculture and Irrigation.

The project’s developers sought a height requirement relaxation from the Red Deer County Municipal Planning Committee in June and received approval with conditions added. These conditions were met and the development permit was officially issued on July 26.

Parrish & Heimbecker Ltd. is a Canadian owned and operated family business that merged 115 years ago.