REGINA – Federal funding has been announced aimed at efforts towards a sustainable economy for Indigenous communities.
At an announcement in Regina, the federal government announced $855,000 in PrairiesCan funding to Cowessess Ventures Ltd. for a rapid composting and bio fertilizer facility.
Working alongside Cowessess are B-Nature Biotech (Saskatoon), and Pro Metal Industries Ltd. (Pasqua First Nation). B-Nature worked to design the system that is being used on Cowessess First Nation, which will help them turn organic waste into fertilizer and ultimately produce food on the First Nation located east of Regina.
Pro Metal contributed to the design and manufacture of the organics bins, which are specially designed to prevent bears from accessing the material — a particular issue for Saskatchewan.
Cowessess, meanwhile, will build a growing dome that will be located on the First Nation to produce food year round, with compost and nutrients from the rapid composting system to be used there at low cost, according to a news release.
Buckley Belanger, Secretary of State for Rural Development, said this system will be turning “waste into usable compost in as little as 20 days, and boosting local food production at the same time.”
“We need this to happen. It's practical, it's local, and it creates jobs… This is a great example of some of that vision that we often share as elected people. It shows what's possible when Saskatchewan partners with Saskatchewan.”
Rebecca Âcikahtê, Business Development Manager of Sustainability for Cowessess Ventures, said the initiative “reflects our Nation's commitment to sustainability, one where waste is no longer seen as a problem but as a part of a reciprocal relationship with Mother Earth.”
Âcikahtê said this will create employment opportunities, strengthen their local food systems, and reduce reliance on imported products and synthetic fertilizers.
“Since time immemorial, our people have understood the importance of caring for the land and maintaining balance between what we take and what we give back. This project brings together those traditional values with modern, clean technology to support a healthier, more self- sufficient future for our communities. It also reinforces Cowessess's position as a leader in renewable energy through solar and wind, and now in full circle, economy solutions that can be scaled and shared with other First Nations and communities across the Prairies.”
Chief Fabian Ironeagle of Pasqua First Nation acknowledged their design team “for designing this bear-proof bin. There's a lot of hard work that went into this particular project and this is the end result. We look forward to providing that for Cowessess First Nation.”
How it works
The idea behind the project, according to a federal news release, is to develop an Indigenous-led “circular economy” initiative, where organic waste is turned back into supporting food production.
B-Nature Biotech’s Raj Behari explained in detail what this process entails.
“At this core, this project is about solving a biological problem with engineering discipline,” said Behari.
“When organic waste is unmanaged, it produces methane, and methane is one of the most powerful greenhouse gases. Traditional composting system can take five months or longer, and during that time, nutrients are lost and emissions occur. At B-Nature, we engineered the system that industrialized the thermophilic phase of composting.”
Instead of taking 150 days, they will stabilize organic material in five days of active treatment using controlled aeration, temperature monitoring, and proprietary microbial formulation, he said.
“What that means in simple terms is this. Waste becomes a stable, nutrient-rich biofertilizer quickly, cleanly, and predictably."
He said organic waste will be converted locally, and nutrients will stay in the community and will support year-round food production in the growing dome and in the farm fields. Behari said the project is “not just about composting. It's about building local capacity, technical agriculture, and economy in a way that aligns with the community priorities and environmental responsibility.”
Belanger said in terms of economic development for First Nations, this will particularly help, especially on the issue of affordability and food sovereignty, where people can better access locally-produced food.
“Even back in northern Saskatchewan where I'm from.. when I go into the stores, we get a lot of our fruit — particularly I'll use the strawberries as an example. It's a product of California. So, what is it doing on our northern store freezer? And that's the question that I often ask. Why can't we grow those here? You know, and it'd be cheaper, it'll create jobs and it'll deal with the accessibility for a lot of our communities. So that's the important point. It's all about food sovereignty, food affordability.”
The other thing those at the announcement pointed to was that the project, and materials for the compost bin, are locally sourced and locally designed.
As for potential job creation, B-Nature said they are at five employees right now and they expect that at Cowessess another five employees are going to be involved in that project. Pro Metal says they can scale up production and hope to see national adoption of the product.
Belanger said the project fits in to what Prime Minister Mark Carney alluded to when he spoke about Canada “becoming our own best customer.”
“What better way to do that than to use the ingenuity of folks that can compost a lot of our organic waste in the community? We can collect it through … a collection bin as designed by the company here today Pro Metal, and then we grow our own food. It's a great concept. It's been around for centuries. We're just capitalizing on that opportunity.”
