CORNER BROOK — He’s not from the region and thinks he’s too old to become a farmer himself, but Frank Aucoin just couldn’t stay away from any public discussion that touched on the subject of agriculture.
The 63-year-old native of Codroy Valley who spent the last 15 years selling automobiles on commission in Fort McMurray, Alta., happened to be in Corner Brook when he heard about the Humber Economic Development Board’s public planning session at the Pepsi Centre Tuesday night.
When he saw that agriculture as one of six sectors the board wants to focus on as it prepares its work plan for the 2011-12 fiscal year, Aucoin couldn’t stay away. He had been working on an agricultural business plan before he left for Alberta and still hopes to help foster growth in that area by encouraging more younger people to consider farming as a way to make a living.
He said the biggest challenge to agriculture in this province is competition from mainland Canada to provide the food that ends up on the plates of Newfoundland and Labrador households.
There’s really very little going on in the agriculture sector an a lot of challenges facing that industry and that’s providing a consistent product to wholesalers for 12 months of the year, having storage facilities, proper farm equipment,” he said.
“Who is going to go into farming when there are so many challenges facing that person? I would like to continue discussing the challenges facing people younger than me if they decided to become a farmer.”
Aucoin said there is nothing in the school system that encourages farming and maybe that is an opportunity.
“It seems that all we’re doing is putting people through school and then sending them off to Alberta,” he said.
Tuesday’s session attracted about 20 people. They were broken up into three groups that each focused on two sectors, with one group examining ideas pertaining to agriculture and tourism, another focusing on youth and education and the third looking at business and forestry.
In all, there were 31 initiatives the groups discussed collectively. The HEDB is looking at whittling that down to just six that it will concentrate on as part of its work plan.
Tracey Reid attended the session as a representative of Crystal Waters Boat Tours. She said her group had some good discussion on the ideas their group as given, but she would have liked to have had more of an opportunity to hear what the other two groups were discussing too.
“I wanted to find out what the Humber Economic Development Board has as their strategy for the 2011-12 plan to bring projects to the whole region,” said Reid. “It was an opportunity to network and see what ideas are out there and maybe build some partnerships.
“My focus was on tourism, but I would like to have learned more about the business aspects as well because there might be something I can learn there. Still, there were some great ideas and, with the support of the Humber Economic Development Board, there are a lot of opportunities for growth in the region.”
