Opportunities sprout in bio-centre project.

A partnership deal between a northeastern Ontario First Nation and a Quebec pharmaceutical company to grow a plant used in cancer treatment could be the cornerstone of an agriculture industrial park on Lake Huron's North Shore.

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The Thessalon First Nation has emerged a few years wiser from an ill-fated business venture with their Bio Centre project with ambitious plans to grow their field and greenhouse operation.

In April, the First Nation entered into a partnership with Bioxel Pharma, makers of oncology drugs such as Taxol, and the Ontario Forest Research Institute and the Upper Lake Environmental Research Network, to grow Canada Yew in an experimental program.

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The low evergreen shrub is the common source of taxane, a compound used as a therapeutic drug in cancer treatment.

"This is the kind of thing we're looking for," says Pam Yukich, the Thessalon First Nation's economic development officer. "Any kind of research project will build our reputation and will be good for us."

The development agency has been entertaining prospective private-sector tenants as part of an evolving strategy to fully investigate ways to best utilize a former Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) tree nursery.

It is their main priority project to create badly needed, homegrown jobs for the 500 band members living an hour's drive east of Sault Ste. Marie.

The Bio Centre, located about 10 kilometres north of Thessalon, just off Highway 129 to Chapleau, comprises 45 acres of farmland, 16 greenhouses and 15 support buildings, including a testing lab and a 6,000-square-foot stainless-steel-lined refrigeration unit that received a $1.4-million renovation three years ago.

It is a site Yukich believes is ideal for businesses or research projects in the nutraceutical (nutritional supplement) and health food field, but also for those in landscaping, flowers and bedding plants, possibly even for companies interested in growing biomass as fuel.

Four years ago, the First Nation acquired the MNR's Kirkwood tree nursery as part of a land claim settlement.

While looking for opportunities to use the expansive 120-acre facility, they formed a company, Elite Plant Products Inc., and entered into an ill-fated alliance with a southern Ontario private partner growing alfalfa and other organic sprouts.

The original business plan called for huge profits from a 43-person growing operation, projected to package 5,000 to 7,000 cases a week.

But the order book never filled up, and without any established distribution networks or marketing resources, the 15-person community operation flopped and became a major financial drain on the First Nation.

"People were going down to Belleville to be trained, coming back and producing sprouts ... but there was nowhere to take them," says Yukich, who inherited the project as EDO in November 2001. Viewpoints differed, the partnership gradually dissolved and the two-year relationship was eventually terminated in April 2003.

"We put all our eggs in one basket with the sprouts and when it collapsed and (the business relationship) deteriorated, we had no other project to lean back on and we had no revenue," explains Yukich.

Wiser for the experience, she says the plan is to return to their original job-creation objective to attract a variety of businesses to lease sections of the facility for multiple projects. With $120,000 in FedNor funding. Thessalon First Nation expects to have a project manager and assistant in place by May to develop a strategy to market the Bio Centre to prospective tenants, negotiate lease agreements and work with senior levels of government.

If a Northern Ontario Heritage Fund application for $450,000 comes through, those funds will be used with the First Nation's money to do more renovations and bring in some consultants.

In April, the Canada Yew project partners were on site selecting greenhouses. The plant will be propagated in greenhouses and later transferred to the fields. Yukich says there has been active interest from the private sector in leasing out other sections of the Bio Centre, but no deals have been signed yet.

With a local labour force already trained in greenhouse operations, Yukich is confident, if developed to its full potential, the operation could offer full employment to the community and create lucrative crop alternatives for area farmers.

By IAN ROSS 

Northern Ontario Business