Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - August 7, 2024, Winnipeg, Manitoba B5 WEDNESDAY AUGUST 7, 2024 ● BUSINESS@FREEPRESS.MB.CA ● WINNIPEGFREEPRESS.COM BUSINESS ‘Positive first step’: province pledges centralized oversight of truck driver training AMID claims of poor oversight, the provincial government has promised to crack down on driver training and review policy recommendations for Manitoba’s trucking industry. “I’ve been waiting for years, it feels like,” said Vanessa Morduhovich, direc- tor of Buffalo Driver Training in Win- nipeg. She’s watched the number of training schools increase since 2019. It’s getting harder to operate, especially as a com- pany following the rules, Morduhovich said. Buffalo teaches two curricula. Since 2019, truck drivers must take one of the two training courses before their Mani- toba Public Insurance test. However, the two curricula are overseen by sep- arate entities; drivers must choose one. The curricula also have different time requirements — 121.5 hours or 244 — and different funding options. Morduhovich and others in the in- dustry allege a lack of oversight has created non-compliance among some schools, leading to drivers not receiv- ing adequate training. “It’s just been terrible,” Morduhovich said. Centralizing oversight of truck driv- er training will be the first of several actions the Manitoba government will take, the province announced Aug. 2. It pointed to a 2023 MNP report on Manitoba’s trucking industry. The 79- page document has more than 40 policy options to address safety, recruitment and retention issues. “We’re beginning this work now,” said Economic Development Minister Jamie Moses. The province is part of a joint steering committee with the Manitoba Trucking Association and industry stakeholders. Its members will create a single train- ing system for all prospective Manitoba truck drivers, Moses said. “We really think that Manitobans would be best served — in terms of safe- ty, in terms of quality training — to have one consistent system for the province.” He didn’t provide a timeline for when a new or revised curriculum might be in place or when other recommenda- tions might be implemented. MNP’s report endorsed limiting the number of licence test attempts someone can take before requiring re- training, increasing resources for en- forcement of training standards and enabling public access to training out- comes, among other items. “I think it’s a positive first step,” Aaron Dolyniuk, executive director of the Manitoba Trucking Association, said of centralizing training oversight. He’s co-chair of the joint steering com- mittee. The group was formed under the Progressive Conservatives in 2022; it delayed presenting the MNP report last year because the government was head- ed for an election blackout period. “As soon as the election was over, I had meetings with the new (NDP) gov- ernment,” Dolyniuk said. “This is some- thing our industry has been seeking change on for many, many years. “There needs to be reform when it comes to driver training, oversight of driver training and funding of driver training.” The MNP report found the number of truck driver trainees exceeds demand, but some 40 per cent of those trained end up in other industries. In 2023-24, the provincial government spent more than $4.65 million on train- ing for 547 prospective truck drivers. “We want to improve the outcome of the training,” Dolyniuk stressed. “Real- ly, what we’re seeking is employment.” The Manitoba Labour Market Out- look has forecast a significant labour shortage in the trucking industry through 2026. The joint steering committee will likely form subcommittees addressing other issues raised in the MNP report; its next meeting comes later this month. Jim Campbell, president of the Pro- fessional Truck Training Alliance of Canada, welcomed the news of driver school reform. “This is something that … reputable schools have been pushing for a num- ber of years,” said Campbell, who is also president of Manitoba-based First Class Training Centre. A lack of oversight extends beyond Manitoba, he relayed. There should be checks ensuring drivers actually meet the hours they’re required to complete, Campbell continued. Manitoba’s joint steering committee will be made permanent, the govern- ment announced last Friday. Manitoba Public Insurance is part of the group; it supports the decision to consolidate regulatory oversight of truck driver training, spokeswoman Kristy Rydz wrote in an email. MPI currently oversees the manda- tory entry-level training course, which is 121.5 hours in length. Private voca- tional institutions deliver the longer curriculum, which is 244 hours. gabrielle.piche@winnipegfreepress.com GABRIELLE PICHÉ Sapphire Springs aquaculture facility under construction in RM of Rockwood draws international eyes ARCTIC CHAR, MANITOBA ZEST E XPECTATIONS are heating up at a Manitoba cold-water fish farm. About 30 per cent of the 14 acres worth of buildings to be constructed for the massive Sapphire Springs fa- cility north of Winnipeg has been com- pleted and the first batch of inch-long, month-old Arctic char fry (baby fish to be raised as broodstock) has moved in. In the next couple of years, they will be joined by tens of thousands more fishy friends as the locally-owned en- terprise builds out more than 600,000 square feet of production tanks for its planned full-fledged commercial com- missioning in early 2027. The facility, expected to employ about 100 people, is designed to pro- duce 6,000, 1.7-kilogram fish per week, or 5,000 metric tonnes per year. Sapphire Springs partners believe it will still only be a drop in the bucket of the global food market that currently “survives” on 8,000 tonnes per year of the cold-water fish that features meat deemed more delicate than salmon. Its taste is generally described as some- where between trout and salmon. Located at the former site of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans’ Rockwood Experimental Fish Hatch- ery, more than 30 kilometres north of the provincial capital, the hope is Sap- phire Springs will contribute to a popu- larization of the niche member of the salmonidae family. The Manitoba business has already become well known in the very small international Arctic char industry. A delegation of officials from Iceland, home to 75 per cent of sector produc- tion, visited the facility this week. “Competition is not a threat, it’s a good thing,” Gudrun Hafsteinsdot- tir, Iceland’s minister of justice and honorary guest at the recent Icelandic Festival of Manitoba, said of Sapphire Springs. “There are lots of possibilities to work together and to share knowledge. I hope my visit here and our co-operation will be beneficial for both parties.” Chuck LaFlèche, Sapphire Springs chief financial officer and one of a group of investors behind the $190-mil- lion project, said the idea is to grow the market. With Arctic char representing only about one per cent of the salmon mar- ket, he said everyone concerned believes there will be no problem absorbing more supply. “We’ve already had one of the largest seafood distributors in North America tell us they would like to be able to distribute our entire production.” Sapphire Springs is designing its fa- cility to be as sustainable as possible, officials said, with 99 per cent of the water sourced from a local aquifer cleaned and recycled throughout the facility. The form of land-based aqua- culture called a recirculating aquacul- ture system, pioneered at Rockwood in the 1970s and ’80s, promises the water is returned to the tanks cleaner than it was before. LaFlèche said about 90 per cent of Sapphire Springs’ financing is effect- ively in place. There’s $15 million of partner equity, plans to raise $10 million through the province’s Small Business Venture Capital Tax Credit program (with close to $4 million already spoken for) and plans for another $20 million in equity from three or four sources. He said the final touches are being made on a $125-million debt consortium being assembled by New York-based invest- ment bankers. Last fall, Sapphire Springs acquired an Arctic char fish farm operation (Icy Waters Ltd.) in Whitehorse that uses a similar stock and sells eggs to producers across Europe. The former operations manager of that enterprise, Doug Hotson, has moved to Manitoba to take on a similar same role at Sapphire Springs. Hotson said the Rockwood aquifer creates excellent conditions for Arctic char. “The broodstock want the water to be 6.5 degrees (C), which is exactly the temperature of the water when it comes out of the ground, all day, every day,” he said. It takes about 18 months for the char to get to the desired 1.7-kg size to go to market. The last nine months of growing requires water temperature of about 11 C to 12 C, which is reached naturally via transient heat from the equipment and normal heat generated by the fish eating and swimming about. “It is a game-changer for us when it comes to operational costs,” Hotson said. “We’ll have 1.1 million litres of water in circulation. If you had to heat and/or cool that, it would be a substan- tial expense.” Hafsteinsdottir said there are cur- rently four large fish farms under con- struction in Iceland that could increase its annual Arctic char production to 40,000 tonnes. LaFlèche said Sapphire Springs is already eyeballing plans to build addi- tional capacity elsewhere in Canada that would increase its annual future production to 35,000 tonnes. “But that’s still only five per cent of the salmon market,” he said. “There is so much room in the market … I don’t get stressed about competition and nei- ther do the Icelanders. We both just see it as strengthening the market.” martin.cash@freepress.mb.ca MARTIN CASH PHOTOS BY MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS Sapphire Springs official Doug Hotson shows ongoing work Tuesday on a building that will house broodstock and juvenile fish at the new Arctic char facility north of Winnipeg. One-month-old Arctic char fry — future broodstock — make their home in ponding tanks amid construction of the 14-acre Sapphire Springs facility in the Rural Municipality of Rockwood on Tuesday. ‘Competition is not a threat, it’s a good thing’ — Gudrun Hafsteinsdottir, Iceland cabinet minister who toured Sapphire Springs this week ;