Tyler Groeneveld has taken over as CEO of Protein Industries Canada, the Saskatchewan-based innovation cluster that has backed 109 projects across the country in eight years. Reporting from Saskatoon, Sylvain Charlebois makes the case for risk-taking in agri-food, failures like Monette Farms included, while the news turns to High Liner Foods’ sale and B.C.’s new Conservative government.
Tyler has 31 years of experience and sat on PIC’s board before becoming CEO. PIC is one of Canada’s five global innovation clusters, and Sylvain calls it the strongest of the group. The harder question is whether it’s taking enough risk.
Sylvain also shares what Saskatchewan mayors and councillors asked him this week: why the CFIA is so hard to deal with, interprovincial trade barriers, how to get private capital interested in agri-food, and which export markets beyond the U.S. are worth chasing.
Out west, B.C.’s new government has Prairie producers thinking about port access. It also puts in play the Agricultural Land Reserve processing rule that Sylvain has criticized in public.
On the East Coast, High Liner Foods leaves Canadian hands after 125 years, which raises hard questions about who owns the country’s food brands. Also: permanent standard time, full Halloween candy shelves, a U.S. lawsuit over tariffs on Canadian goat cheese, Olymel’s $142-million expansion and restaurant no-shows.
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