The annual general meeting of the Starland Seed Cleaning Plant in Delia was held on Thursday evening, December 21.
    The current seed cleaning plant was built in the 1960’s with a smaller cleaning volume. The scale currently only handles three ton trucks whereas farmers have grown in operation by using transport such as B-Train units; one tractor or truck pulling two trailers coupled together by a fifth wheel attached directly to the rear of the lead trailer.
    “We still need to make some improvements to the existing facility, its getting fairly old, tired and in order to keep the business viable, we’re going to have to bring something fresh to it,” said Al Hampton, Starland Seed Cleaning Plant secretary.
    It seemed to be a rude wake-up call for many as the construction of a new cooperative plant may result in a blown out budget.
    “The expected outcome was not necessarily what everybody was really looking for,” said Hampton. “At the end of the day, I think that was good information for that group and probably pointed us in maybe a little bit of a different direction.”
    Former Starland County economic development officer Jordan Webber created a viability study for the facility.
    Four different ideas were discussed. The original plan of building a new facility came with a price tag upwards of $5 million and major commitments from stakeholders.
    “He kind of based it on cleaning volumes we had currently and estimated volumes that we may be able to get in the event that we build a bigger facility and being a cooperative type of a model and given seed cleaning costs and prices and all that type of stuff, the results were a little less friendly than we were expecting,” said Hampton.
    There are currently no government grants available and this study made it clear that this was not the best plan to follow.
    “I think Jordan outlined pretty well that a project of this magnitude is going to take quite a bit of planning and quite a bit of commitment by the shareholders and the community in general,” continued Hampton.
    Their next option is to make improvements to the existing structure in order to better serve the needs of the surrounding farming community.
    “We are going to have to recalculate what our original plans were so we are bringing in a couple of different seed plant builders to come and have a look at the existing facility to see what maybe could be done with it to try and make use of the existing structure,” said Hampton. “Basically can we make the experience better and maintain or increase our cleaning volumes.”
    Two other options can be pursued. The plant can seek out a strong partnership where they can work together to build some type of facility or go portable.
    By going to a portable model, it would mold the current business into something surrounding the specialized equipment. This type of model would compete with other portable seed cleaning plant companies in the county as well.
“I think from our seed cleaning plant perspective, we want something stationary so it’s durable, something that will service the needs in the area,” said Hampton.
    “It’s a challenging sort of a task to undertake and anything worthwhile pursuing always takes a little bit of work, time, and effort.”

    It has been an exciting year in Alberta politics. The Mail took some time with Drumheller-Stettler MLA Rick Strankman to discuss the year that has been.
    Top of the list is the formation of the United Conservative Party (UCP). In March, Jason Kenney won the leadership of the Alberta Conservative Party. Then in July, the United Conservative Party was formed by the merger of the Wildrose Party. In October, Kenney became the leader of the newly formed political entity.
    “I compare Jason Kenney to a salmon swimming upstream, facing the rocky outcropping and facing the possibility of being hunted by a bear, and every time he faces a challenge, there is a new level of success,” he said.
    “He has achieved lots of political success. He works hard and his work schedule is unbelievable.”
    He is impressed by his new leader.
    “I am anxious to see his performance in the chamber because he is such an eloquent speaker. I tell my constituents they need to listen to the fluency of what Jason Kenney says,” said Strankman.
    One of the success he points to this year is the passing of UCP deputy leader Leela Aheer’s private member Bill 206, which allows adoption agencies to publish profiles of prospective adoptive parents.
He says the party has had more success with amendments to other bills.
    Of course, the economy was front and centre for much of the debate this year and Strankman is concerned about Alberta remaining competitive.
    “I was watching American television and the voting going on down there where they are removing 15 per cent from corporate tax. I don’t know the full ins and outs and technicalities there, but I feel like I have fallen and have a concussion. They are making a big deal of this, whereas in this province in a week to 10 days, we are going to be raising the Carbon Tax by 50 per cent,” said Strankman.
    “For the Americans to reduce taxes it is going to create an unfair tax regime for economic development here. I’ve been wrong before, but all the signs here point to a lot of negativity for economic development.”
    His wish for the new year?
    “A reduction in the Carbon Tax.”