Canary Biofuels announced it will invest $18 million in a cold press oilseed crushing plant in Lethbridge.
According to a press release from the Alberta government, the project will create 40 permanent jobs and 25 temporary jobs and will process 200,000 tonnes of seed per year. It will produce value-added products such as canola oil and meal.
The project has qualified for the province’s Agri-Processing Investment Tax Credit (APITC) and the company will receive a tax credit estimated at $1.7 million.
George Wadsworth, CEO of Canary Biofuels said “This project will support jobs and indirectly support thousands of Albertan and Canadian oilseed farmers by providing more localized offtake for their crops, including off-spec materials.”
Canary Biofuels is an agricultural processor that produces feedstock for the renewable fuels industry as well as high-value products for the livestock feed industry. It is headquartered in Calgary with a process facility in Lethbridge.
The company’s crush process incorporates a proprietary cold press design that allows the processing of all varieties and qualities of seed while producing a super degummed quality oil suitable for animal feed, renewable diesel and renewable aviation biofuels. In addition, the non-solvent process produces a high-value animal feed ingredient.
The current crush plant in Lethbridge has been operating at 50,000 MT/year and has just completed the first phase of expansion at 80,000 MT/Y with following expansion phases of 120,000 and finally 200,000 MT/Y to be completed sometime in 2026.
The APITC provides a 12 per cent non-refundable, non-transferable tax credit when businesses invest $10 million or more in a project to build or expand a value-added agri-processing facility in Alberta. The program is open to any food manufacturers and bioprocessors that add value to commodities like grains or meat or turn agricultural by-products into new consumer or industrial goods.
RJ Sigurdson, Minister of Agriculture and Irrigation said “Alberta is an agriculture powerhouse with a thriving food and bioprocessing sector.”
Alberta’s agri-processing sector is the second-largest manufacturing industry in the province and the biofuel industry plays an important role in the sector, generating millions in annual economic impact and creating thousands of jobs.
So far, 10 corporations have received conditional approval under the APITC program. Each company must submit progress reports on their project, then apply for a tax credit certificate when the project is complete. As of Feb. 11, 2025, 16 corporations had applied to the program for projects worth about $1.63 billion in new investment in Alberta’s agri-processing sector.
Be the first to comment