A Canadian hemp processing and textile initiative introduced with fanfare in 2024 has quietly collapsed only a 12 months later, abandoning unfulfilled guarantees of native job creation and Indigenous-led cultivation in japanese Alberta.
The destiny of a deliberate decortication facility within the City of Elk Level is unclear after a garment manufacturing association with Canada’s largest uniform producer, Logistik Unicorp, didn’t materialize.
The formation of Askiy Hemp LP, introduced in spring 2024, was supported by a CA$5 million (US$3.6 million) federal mortgage that has now been withdrawn, in response to Canada’s Open Science and Information Platform, with the unexplained notation “Mission withdrawn. Mission was posted in error.” The cash was via PrariesCan, Canada’s regional financial improvement company for the nation’s Prairie provinces.
Standing unclear
Underneath the Askiy Hemp LP initiative, Frog Lake First Nation (FLFN) was to coordinate hemp cultivation on as much as 125,000 acres, feeding a fiber processing facility designed to decorticate and cottonize 40,000 tons of hemp stalks yearly. The processed fiber was meant to be used by Logistik Unicorp within the manufacturing of hemp-based uniforms.
Frog Lake First Nations is a local Cree group that manages two reserves masking roughly 140 sq. miles (362 sq. kilometers). The reserves are situated roughly 40 kilometers east of Elk Level.
The undertaking was promoted as a significant step ahead in Indigenous financial reconciliation and rural revitalization, with greater than 75 jobs promised throughout farming, processing, and garment manufacturing. It’s unclear whether or not any planting of hemp or improvement of a manufacturing facility has begun for the deliberate decortication facility in an current construction in Elk Level’s Variety Industrial Park.
FLFN didn’t reply to a question from HempToday concerning the standing of Askiy Hemp LP.
In the meantime, the destiny of a CA$1.1 million funding introduced by the province of Alberta in help of Logistik Unicorp’s function within the textile initiative can be unclear. Logistik, based mostly in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Québec, holds a CA$3.7 billion, 20-year contract with the Canadian Armed Forces and provides greater than 325,000 uniformed personnel throughout authorities businesses.
2nd enterprise ‘going robust’
As FLFN deliberate an entry into industrial hemp, it first shaped Askiy Asiniy LP Ltd., later altering the identify to Asinikahtamwak LP Ltd. That enterprise, separate from the deliberate cope with Logistik, was shaped in early 2024 as a three-way partnership amongst FLFN, the City of Elk Level, and Alberta-based Pure Fibre Expertise (NFT).
Asinikahtamwak LP Ltd. continues to be on monitor, in response to Jesse Hahn of NFT, which holds a 39% curiosity within the partnership. FLFN holds 51% in that enterprise, with the City of Elk Level holding the remaning 10%. Hahn mentioned the companions are “going robust” of their joint operation, which makes pre-fabricated hempcrete building parts reminiscent of blocks, modular partitions and masonry cladding.
A second entity, Nikawiy Askiy Micisowin, was to determine grain farming and hemp seed meals processing through a three way partnership. Information studies affirm FLFN shaped that enterprise, however there isn’t any report of precise meals processing operations or product output up to now.
Alberta stays the highest hemp-producing province in Canada, answerable for about 40% of nationwide cultivation in 2024.
