Study looks at future uses for Delhi research station

Wednesday, April 10, 2013

by SUSAN MANN

An agricultural industry organization studying new uses for the closed Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada research station near Delhi plans to release its final report later this spring.

But the overarching theme that’s emerged from the study process is “the site is seen as a valuable asset to the (southcentral Ontario) region,” says John Kelly, vice president of Erie Innovation and Commercialization.

The federal agriculture department closed the station on Schafer Side Road west of Delhi on March 31. First opened in 1933 and formerly used as a tobacco research station, it’s called the Southern Crop Protection and Food Research Centre.

Erie Innovation formed an advisory committee of stakeholders that may be able to use the Delhi research station. It’s made up of academics, business people, economic development officials and politicians. Kelly says their intent is to find “a useful way of repurposing the station.” Erie Innovation has now finished its “evaluation of the different scenarios,” Kelly says.

The study includes the property’s assets, including the buildings and services, such as hydro and water, plus the facility’s operational costs and the taxes. The idea is to get a sense of what the 160-acre property and buildings are worth and what it costs to operate, he says.

Kelly declined to release the operational costs and station asset figures. He says he only wants to release those figures in the final report “because I don’t want to put Agriculture Canada in a position where the numbers come out before they get a chance to have a look at it.”

The final report is due out in the next four to six weeks. It will first be presented to Erie Innovation’s advisory board “and then it will be widely distributed,” he says, noting the reason they did the study was “to provide guidance to whoever would have an interest in the site.”

About the station’s worth, Kelly did say land in the area is $10,000 to $15,000 per acre. That puts the land values, but not including the value of the buildings, for the station at $1.6 million to $2.4 million. For buildings, there is one major one, four outbuildings and several other smaller ones, he says. “The buildings are in excellent shape.”

Kelly says they’ve held four focus groups in the southcentral Ontario region and had agricultural industry, researchers, academics and government officials “all giving their perspective on what they think the use of this property could be.” Knowing what people think has been very valuable, he adds.

Patrick Girard, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada spokesman, says by email the department must follow the Treasury Board policy on property management. “The disposal of the Delhi facility will be done in accordance with these directives and guidelines.”

He adds that Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada “is not in any position to predict the outcome of the disposal process at this time.”

Kelly says their study looked at a variety of different options, including using the station as a water research institute or an agri-food innovation centre. It also looked at the outright sale of the station to a farmer or company for its own use, or having a food cluster type program there or a combination of uses.  

“The combination of uses seems to be the one that fits the best,” he explains. That could involve several different companies existing on the property. “Part of it could be a water research institute and part could be other uses.” The objective would be that all the uses would be related to agriculture.

Girard says the station was used for field research trials on grower-selected priority projects as part of the federal agriculture department’s minor use pesticide program. The research covered horticulture, specialty crops, such as ginseng, hemp and hops, and field vegetables. The research supported “the use of new minor uses of pesticides.”

All 2012 field trials were completed before the farm was closed. This year trials that would have been done at the Delhi station have been moved to other agriculture department research farms or contracted to qualified research companies, Girard says. BF