Farmers who worked with Northern Grain Limited in Richmond, British Columbia will have to find another enterprise with which to partner since the company is no longer doing business in Canada.
The Canadian Grain Commission (CGC) recently announced that as of July 1, it would no longer licence Northern Grain Limited. As a result, the commission will no longer hold security for the business under the Safeguards for Grain Farmers Program. This means farmers who do business with the company after this date will not be protected by security under the Canada Grain Act.
“The contact that we had for the company is no longer employed by Northern Grain Ltd.; as far as we know, they do not have representation in Canada anymore,” Rémi Gosselin, manager of corporate information services with CGC, said in an email. “We don’t really have more information on Northern Grain Ltd.”
CGC did not know which producers or companies might have been doing business with Northern Grain Ltd., nor how many farmers might have shipped through the now-defunct grain company, he continued. Moreover, the business had not reported any liability “in quite some time,” while it had let its licence lapse in May.
Gosselin added that CGC alerted the public about Northern Grain Ltd.’s shutdown as part of its due diligence, while the commission did not receive any complaints from former customers about outstanding payments.
Northern Grain Ltd. is one of 73 grain companies across Canada whose licence is no longer in effect as of the start of July, according to the CGC website, under the header "Licences no longer in effect."
Thirty-four of those companies are in Saskatchewan, while some are in the Moose Jaw area, including the Viterra Canada terminal in Pense, the ILTA Grain Inc. elevator in Belle Plaine, the Chaplin Grain Corp. in Chaplin, the Alliance Pulse Processors Inc. elevator in Chamberlain and Glidden, the Paterson Grain elevator in Mortlach, and the Gardiner Dam Terminal Joint Venture elevator near Loreburn.
An internet search reveals Northern Grain Ltd. was based at 4688 Blundell Road in Richmond, a four-bedroom, two-bathroom home that is 3,200 square feet in size and had an assessed property value of $1.3 million in 2019.
While the company had a B.C. address, its phone number was from Saskatchewan. The Moose Jaw Express attempted to call the number, but it was disconnected.
The Express also attempted to call a number for a Northern Grain Ltd., with an address at 1008-1914 Hamilton Street in Regina, to determine if this was the same company but did not hear from anyone.
