British Columbia could be home to one of Canada’s largest marijuana farms

Dec 20, 2017

Shawn Galbraith is in the process of purchasing 98 acres of farmland

By Diego Flammini
News Reporter
Farms.com

If a Saanich, B.C. businessman’s next venture is successful, he could own one of the country’s largest marijuana operations.

Shawn Galbraith, founder and CEO of Evergreen Medicinal Supply, hopes to purchase 98 acres of farmland from Stanhope Dairy Farm for about $12 million. His long-term plans include building 21 greenhouses on the site to grow marijuana.

He’s already received approval from Health Canada to build a 150,000-square-foot greenhouse that comes with a price tag of $25 million.

Central Saanich council needs to approve the application before construction can begin.

The land falls under the Agricultural Land Reserve, but the Agricultural Land Commission does not have authority to regulate how the land is used. And Christy Clark’s provincial Liberal government approved the growth of medical cannabis on ALR land.

The total project could cost upwards of $500 million, but Galbraith is confident the benefits outweigh the production costs.

“I think (the marijuana facility) is an excellent use of this valley,” he told CTV News on Monday. “I think that to be able to generate billions (of dollars) in revenue and literally thousands of jobs.”

And Galbraith doesn’t seem to be exaggerating with his billion-dollar assessment.

Canada’s marijuana industry could be worth about $22.6 billion annually, according to a report by accounting firm Deloitte.

Despite the potential within the marijuana industry, however, other B.C. producers would rather see young farmers on the land.

“It should be farmland, period (and) it should be used for farmers,” Frans Winkel, a pig farmer who owns land near Galbraith’s proposed site, told CTV News. “Even if they cut it up into smaller pieces for young farmers who want to experience farming. That’s what it’s all about.”

Some residents also worry about increased traffic, odours and pollution.

“Those are big concerns for people in the area because we’ve been through it once before (with a compost facility at Stanhope Dairy Farm that saw its owners bring in food scraps and construction debris),” resident Doug Fulton told The Times Colonist yesterday. “Once the project starts, (residents) have no leverage.”

Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.