City of Regina, Saskatchewan
The City of Regina, Saskatchewan BDO Zone for Canola Straw is rated ‘BBB’.
Rating Issue Date: October 31, 2024.
BBB ratings indicate good prospective viability of Feedstock Supply and Infrastructure and low current expectations of default risk in the Zone. Capacity to support new biobased plant operations is considered adequate, but adverse weather, supply chain, economic, or infrastructure conditions are more likely to impair this capacity over time.
City of Regina, SK holds an investment-grade BDO Zone ‘BBB’ Rating for Canola straw. Issued in Oct 2024, the rating certifies approximately 340,000 gt/yr of reliable, low-risk biomass feedstock available within a 120-km driving distance from center point (City of Regina, SK).
A ‘BBB’ rating is an investment grade rating, signalling a good, moderate-risk feedstock supply. It signals to developers, lenders, and investors that City of Regina, SK’s feedstock supply has undergone rigorous, standardized due diligence across 100+ risk indicators, the same framework applied to every BDO Zone across North America.
Every BDO Zone Rating assesses a region across three dimensions, mapped as expanding radii around a candidate site.
- Feedstock surplus: Data indicating at least 50,000 tonnes per year of excess feedstock available to support typical intake of new biofuels manufacturing plants.
- Supply chain strength: Evidence supporting long-term commitment to supply both quantity and quality by local farmers, forestry companies, food waste generators, haulers and municipalities.
- Sound infrastructure: Suitable transportation, logistic, operating and supporting infrastructure to meet the requirements for new facility operations.
Assets & liabilities
- Located within one of the highest canola production areas in Saskatchewan with 10-year average canola seed planted area of 1.8 million acres
- No past and present commercial competing uses of canola straw in the BDO Zone
- Unique 1,800-acre industrial site, known as the Global Transportation Hub, specifically designed to attract new industries
- Most crop growers prefer to use canola straw as soil cover and its removal is not common practice
- Canola crushing facilities encourage crop growers to leave canola straw in the field to minimize the use of fertilizers
- Lack of established experience among crop growers to harvest, collect, store, and transport commercial quantities of canola straw
- No historical prices for canola straw are available in the BDO Zone, resulting in uncertainty in future expected prices
- Year-to-year canola straw production can vary significantly due to weather conditions
Infrastructure & sites
- Inland port facility with just over 1,800 acres
- Industrial building sites available that are service-ready with full utilities
- Designed to accept freight by truck and train
- Products can be shipped to domestic locations and the United States via road or rail
- Efficient rail connections with deep-water shipping ports (Vancouver west, Montreal east)
- State of the art container and intermodal terminal facility served by CN Rail
- Opened fall 2018
- Over 7,000 TEU of container storage and apron space
- Connectivity to Trans Canada Highway 1, Highways 33, 6, and 11
- Ideal for warehousing, logistics, trucking, manufacturing, and value-added agricultural processing
Local grants & incentives
- Corporate Tax Incentives: 10% tax credit for research and development expenditures (refundable); 6.8% refundable investment tax credit for manufacturing and processing equipment; Manufacturing and Processing Exporter tax incentive for employee expansion
- Saskatchewan Commercial Innovation Incentive (SCII): Reduces provincial Corporate Income Tax rate to 6% for 10 years on taxable income from commercialization of qualifying intellectual property; extendable to 15 years if majority of R&D conducted in Saskatchewan; open to any company worldwide in any sector
- Saskatchewan Value-Added Agriculture Incentive (SVAI): 15% non-refundable tax credit for new/existing value-added agriculture facilities; minimum capital investment of $10 million required; redemption 20% year one, 30% year two, 50% year three post-opening
- Saskatchewan Technology Start-up Incentive (STSI): 45% non-refundable tax credit for equity investments in eligible tech start-ups; capped at $140,000 maximum annual benefit per investor; must have 50 or fewer employees with 50% in Saskatchewan
- Canada Digital Adoption Program: micro-grant up to $2,400 for small businesses; available until March 2025; supports ecommerce implementation costs
Contacts
