Members of the High Prairie Seed Cleaning Co-operative Ltd. can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel.

And the light has never looked brighter, or better.

Construction on the new seed plant in the town’s west end is proceeding well and ahead of schedule.

“It’s perfect,” says co-op chair Ken Stewart, adding there wasn’t much else to say.

They are hoping to start production Sept. 1.

Manager Bryant Kushner has worked at the current plant for 30 years and seen all kinds of technology come and go. He is looking forward to the state-of-the-art plant and everything it brings to the table.

The fact is the old plant has outlived its usefulness. Built for much smaller trucks – 90 per cent of grain arrives on Super-Bs – it has become outdated.

The task of building the new 30,000-bushel plant was given to Rennel Construction of Rivierre Qui Barre. They built the seed plant in Provost; High Prairie’s is modeled after Provost’s with some changes in design, or additions.

In comparison, the old plant has only 6,000 bushels of capacity.

And that is not all, says Kushner. The new plant will be able to clean three times as much grain per hour as the old plant.

“This (new) plant will do a million bushels a year,” says Kushner. “But if we do a double shift we could do two or three million bushels per year.”

The plant will be the biggest in Alberta.

“There is no use building a plant the same size,” says Kushner. “It had to be built big enough for a viable expansion.”

The plant’s technology is state-of-the-art. For example, It has a colour sorter which takes pictures of oats and wild oats. Upon immediate identification of the wild oats it shoots a stream of air at it and shoots it out.

The plant will be able to clean any type of cereal grain and flax but not grass seed.

Preparing to operate the plant required some training.

“There is a sharp learning curve,” says Kushner. “All the equipment starts from computers and the bin monitoring is done in the office.”

Kushner says financial support has been tremendous. The M.D. of Big Lakes budgeted $25,000 for 10 years on top of the $250,000 cash contribution so they have made a $500,000 commitment.

However, the big push which made the project a reality was $2 million in federal grant money announced Feb. 9, 2010. The grant was approved under the government’s Community Adjustment Fund.

“It re-establishes High Prairie as an agricultural hub in northern Alberta,” said Fort McMurray – Athabasca MP Brian Jean.

“It’s a significant contribution by the federal government in a place they usually don’t contribute money directly. Certainly, it solidifies how important this area is to our federal government and how important this type of business is to the future of Canada,” he adds.

“The new plant would never have gone ahead without the money from the Community Adjustment Fund,” says Kushner.

Reeve Alvin Billings says credit for the plant has to go to Kushner, Stewart and the work of David Belyan, who relentlessly worked the phone lines regarding the plant's status.

Earlier, 250 shares were sold at $220 and about 30 more $1,000 shares need to be sold by the end of July. So the push is on for one final sales drive. If interested, please call the seed plant at 780-523-3955.