ACC’s Prairie Innovation Centre aims to strengthen the agriculture labour market
Agriculture has long been at the heart of many of Manitoba’s rural communities, but it’s no secret the number of people making a career of it is shrinking. Assiniboine Community College is working on changing that, through innovative programs and an exciting project that will nearly triple the number of graduates in the Ag field each year.
The college’s Prairie Innovation Centre for Sustainable Agriculture at its main campus in Brandon will address labour shortages, advance research and increase engagement between students and the ag industry, says Tim Hore, Dean of Assiniboine’s Russ Edwards School of Agriculture and Environment.
“The need for the Prairie Innovation Centre for Sustainable Ag is really the expansion of programming within the Russ Edwards School, which is being driven by the labour market,” Hore says. “Think tanks and entities like the Canadian Agricultural Human Resource Council are forecasting that one in three jobs are going to go unfilled in the industry by 2029. What if we don’t fill those jobs? The lost opportunity in terms of GDP to the Province of Manitoba is huge.”
Projected to open in September 2027, the Prairie Innovation Centre aims to help, increasing the number of graduates from Ag-related programs each year from about 300 to as many as 900. The one-of-a-kind project will feature an integrated learning environment with indoor and outdoor collaborative spaces, labs for applied research and multipurpose spaces that will be used not just by students and staff of agriculture, environment and ag-related technology programs, but also the local agricultural industry.
The new Centre will be housed in a repurposed and renovated historic building on Assiniboine’s North Hill campus that’s already home to culinary arts, trades and technology programs. Besides providing skilled graduates in much-needed areas of ag, environmental studies and related technology—allowing current programs to be expanded and new ones to be added, including those related to increased automation and mechanization—the link to industry and community organizations will also be strengthened.
The project is being funded through donations from industry and local philanthropists totalling $23 million so far, and a commitment from the provincial government for around $90 million (which includes a 216-space childcare centre on site). The college is now looking to the Government of Canada for a $40 million investment.
“Ag is an economic driver. We know that, and government knows that,” Hore says. “We need that skilled labour to bring to the table, and Assiniboine is well poised to provide that leadership in terms of programming and working with industry to ensure those labour needs and skill sets are met.”
Attracting donor support for the Centre has been successful because audiences and stakeholders understand the need and believe in the “Ag belongs here” campaign slogan, says the college’s president, Mark Frison.
“Our donors warmed up to the idea pretty quickly, and the sector got it immediately. For other folks in the community, it’s not hard to understand that in Manitoba, ag is important to our future. It doesn’t matter who you are, you’re probably not that far removed from how ag affects the world around you,” Frison explains.
Another big driver for the need for the Centre is bringing in new agriculture and environmental programs like Mechatronics, Chemical Engineering Technology and Food Science Technology.
“We did an environmental scan about five years ago and it was really evident that based on the current and expected investment in Manitoba, there was going to be a definite need for skill sets in those areas,” Hore explains. Among these and other programs launching in the near future, a brand-new two-year advanced diploma program called Digital Agriculture Technology will welcome 24 students this September, integrating conventional ag practices with emerging digital technologies through hands-on learning.
“We’ve grown in the last 100 years from the horse and plow, to autonomous vehicles out on our fields. And this is really what this course is all about: grounding students in the agronomy aspects of agriculture, the growing pieces, and then bringing in the whole aspect of the digital age, the data management, and understanding predictive analytics,” Hore explains.
Digital Ag Technology will include work-integrated learning and placements through partnerships with local industry, like those already in place in many of Assiniboine’s ag programs such as with Westman producers including HyLife, Simplot, Maple Leaf Foods and Vermillion Growers.
Exciting programs like this will help the Prairie Innovation Centre for Sustainable Agriculture and the Russ Edwards School of Agriculture and Environment make valuable contributions to the industry—along with that much-needed dent in the agriculture labour gap, says Hore.
“It’s just really going to help us meet our vision and mission of bringing together education, applied research and extension to really provide that knowledge transfer and move the industry forward.”
