Business View Magazine | July 2019

293 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE JULY 2019 behind this amazing industrial growth, and other economic initiatives at play. The following is an edited transcript of that conversation. BVM: What factors contributed to this huge investment by industry? May: “The first investment came in January 2017 from a company out of France, called Roquette that deals in plant-based protein. You may be familiar with the “beyond meat burger”– this company provides the pea protein that goes into that product. When they’ve completed their development it will be the largest pea protein facility in the world. They chose Portage partly because of the available land, plus, Manitoba has the lowest hydroelectricity rate in North America. We were down to the final two cities and almost lost the deal to another location. What really swayed it was that our power source is primarily hydroelectric – a renewable green energy source versus coal-based power in their other site. Given we’re dealing with a food product and concerns around stewardship and food security, it made Portage very attractive. “That was a $400 million project. Because we had requirements to upgrade the municipal infrastructure for capacity for wastewater and nutrient removal water before it goes back into the system, the J.R. Simplot company out of Idaho began looking at expanding their plant. They’ve been in Portage la Prairie since 2003 and were considering an expansion in our city, or a greenfield development in Washington State. When they saw all the infrastructure taking place and the upgrades to roads directly adjacent to their property, it made it a timely investment for them to expand here. So, they announced a $460 million expansion of their plant in February 2018. Combined, that’s almost $1 billion, just with those two companies; and the creation of roughly 300 new jobs.” BVM: What other economic benefits has the resurgence brought? May: “It has spurred a lot of active interest in housing development. At the present time, we have housing projects underway at various stages of development for the creation of 500 new rental PORTAGE LA PRA I R I E , MANI TOBA