“We need to talk about food autonomy,” said François Legault, as he announced a contribution of nearly $42 million to support the Center for Innovation in Agrosciences and Agrotechnology.
We could therefore soon eat all kinds of varieties of mushrooms produced all year round at L’Assomption and, why not, even shrimp. The project, as a whole, wants to bring together in Lanaudière these companies that carry out cutting-edge agriculture and aquaculture, many in research and development; with an interest in sustainable and urban production.
“The idea is to help our agricultural producers increase their productivity,” said Prime Minister François Legault. We are in a situation where there is a labor shortage. We must be able, with robots and others, to innovate to have the same production, but with fewer employees. »
Collaborative spirit
At the heart of the project, a new four-story building. This 33,000 square foot center will be used both by scientists working on pest management projects in agriculture and the development of varieties better adapted to new climatic realities and by young shoots in the agri-food industry.
The center will be surrounded by established companies, in other nearby buildings, having chosen L’Assomption to benefit from and share know-how, technology, training and other common resources in order to promote acceleration of their growth.
“Once the company is incubated and ready to attack the market,” explained the mayor of L’Assomption, Sébastien Nadeau, “we will bring it into premises and we will grow with it. We want to take them from an initial cycle to a maturity cycle so that they one day become exporting companies. »
A campus for everyone
The project will have a total of 4 million square feet, divided over land in Repentigny and L’Assomption. In this latter municipality, we really want to create a sort of “campus” which can also attract citizens and visitors, in a friendly living environment, a little outside the current city center of L’Assomption. “We want to encourage active transportation,” explained Mayor Sébastien Nadeau. We want to be able to eat there while promoting local products as much as possible. »
It is the AgTech organization which is leading the project, in collaboration with CIEL – the Industrial and Environmental Crossroads of Lanaudière. They are jointly investing $3.1 million in this new development, for a total investment of $46 million, including $41.7 million from Quebec.
PHOTO HUGO-SÉBASTIEN AUBERT, THE PRESS
Minister of Agriculture André Lamontagne and François Legault
A significant part of this new agrotechno hub will be located on the land of the former Electrolux factory, in L’Assomption, and in this district. The factory closed its doors in the summer of 2014. The agrotechnology zone project was born shortly after and led to the birth of the AgTech zone in 2020.
“Lanaudière will be the capital agtech from Quebec,” said Mayor Sébastien Nadeau, who hopes that the young companies that will join the project will then establish themselves in his city.
Special provisions for agricultural workers
This announcement was made while the Quebec agricultural sector is under pressure, in particular because Ottawa’s new provisions which require a visa for Mexicans, before their arrival, are a real headache for temporary workers.
Prime Minister Legault wants us to find “a way to treat agricultural workers differently”.
“We must distinguish between people who come to work here only in the summer and who are not at risk of becoming asylum seekers,” he said Friday morning, on the sidelines of the press conference.
The Prime Minister was reassuring for worried farmers. “We will help them,” he promised, even invoking the possibility of financial aid.
François Legault also invoked an upcoming simplification of processes in agriculture, the bureaucracy being heavy in this economic sector, he said, as well as a possible “regulatory relief” which could help Quebec producers to be more competitive in the face of foreign products.
“There is something not fair in the fact that the products that are imported, in certain cases, do not have the same environmental standards as in Quebec,” explained François Legault, specifying that half of our foods do not is not produced in Quebec.