Corus Land Holdings, an affiliate of agricultural giant Ceres Global Ag. Corp. recently bought the entire hamlet of Northgate, a village close to the U.S. border in southeast Saskatchewan, snapping up all 168 townsite lots, about 60 acres, for a reported $118,000, plus some neighbouring farm lands.
Ceres is a publicly traded company that owns grain-handling facilities in Minnesota, North Dakota, Ontario, Wisconsin, Wyoming and New York. John Gould, CFO for Ceres, did not say what the land would be used for, but with Corus and Ceres being affiliated with Riverland Ag Corp., a Minneapolis-based grain storage and marketing business with facilities in the U.S. and Canada, the speculation of a major grain-handling facility being constructed on the site is running rampant.
With nearby railroad tracks available and a former modest grain car loading facility already in place, the rumours appear to be leaning toward a facility that would accommodate the sale and transportation of Saskatchewan grains to an American storage and/or processing facility now that an unrestricted grain market exists in Canada with the demise of the former Canadian Wheat Board's (CWB) monopoly. An RM of Enniskillen administration official confirmed the purchase of the land on the Canadian side had been completed and Gould noted that land on the North Dakota side of Northgate was also purchased.
Gould confirmed the Toronto-based development company had received approval for the purchase from the Saskatchewan Farmland Security Board. This is necessary for anyone from outside the province wishing to purchase more than 10 acres of farmland in Saskatchewan. A Richardson Pioneer elevator is located in Northgate but it has been sitting unused for several years, while a General Mills elevator is situated on the North Dakota side. Further rumours are being fuelled by the fact that Corus/Ceres holds a 25 per cent ownership position in the Stewart Southern Shortline Inc., a shortline railroad system that extends from Stoughton northwest to Kronau, a distance of 132 kilometres. In recent months shortline rail systems have been contracted to haul crude oil from the southern Saskatchewan oilpatch, linking them to the mainlines and then on to refineries.
Stewart Southern is currently loading and shipping up to 4,000 barrels of oil per day. Gould said he could not confirm or deny that prospects such as this are currently part of their ongoing analysis. “All options are considered,” he said.
