Huronia VIII- The land of milk and honey

This is part of a continuing series on consulting and advising small towns in the vicinity of Lake Simcoe and Kawartha Lakes on options they could have to increase their growth and population.Huronia VII was on Lindsay and discussed the possibility of constructing a small or maybe a large marina just downstream from the lock in Lindsay.Huronia VIII takes a different approach completely;it looks at agricultural processing in Lindsay.                            

    The Usual Platform
   Many small towns need a platform to grow from a town of 20,000 or under to a town of  30,000 to 50,000.The usual platform is agriculture or lumber processing.There are quite a few towns in Ontario that are in the 15,000 to 20,000 population category that want to increase in size to 25,000 to 30,000 and then bigger.This growth gives the municipal government the means to do more things.This gives the town more facilities.
  Towns in this higher tier of population include Hanover,Owen Sound and Orangeville.Towns in the lower tier of population include Lindsay, Collingwood,Wasaga Beach,Midland, Port Elgin and many others.All towns  in this tier count on growing their econonomy through tourism.It is a natural process because it is easy to do;these are not "high tech" jobs.The problem is that there are only so many tourist dollars to go around.Not all the towns can benefit to a large degree from the tourist dollar.Also the towns benefit only for a certain period of time.And the jobs that are added by tourism are  low paying service jobs.Often this means that two or three more jobs are added at the Mcdonald's Restaurant and Tim Hortons in the summer and released in the winter.                                                                                          Often the towns that move to the next tier have agricultural processing or lumber processing.These jobs that are added are permanent jobs.There are  many kinds of processing that a town can adopt but it depends on the kind of land around the town.Lindsay, for example, does not have deep soil but is suitable for beef and dairy farming and growing corn and cereals (or grains)This would naturally lead to dairy and meat processing and grain processing.But probably it would allow specialized  processing such as sausage production and cheese or  yogurt production.But in Lindsay's case dairy production is almost impossible because of the milk plant in Bobcaygeon.It must look at other possibilities.
   Speciality processing- grains and honey 
 One form of processing that is not so popular is making honey- an apiary.There aren't as many bees nor honey produced but on the other hand honey consumption is down also according to Statistics Canada.The price of honey has been steady recently but has increased over the last ten year period.There is an apiary in Eganville (north of Pembroke) but it is almost closed.This might make a secondary operation to work together with one in Lindsay.This new and combined operation could serve much of central and eastern Ontario.This is a longshot but if it worked would add income and a few new jobs in Lindsay.
   The most likely kind of agricultural processing to benefit Lindsay is processing grain.Lindsay could have a grain processing plant to serve it's needs and the surrounding area.It is true that a bigger flour mill (such as in Newmarket) could produce flour cheaper than in Lindsay.But the cost of transportation must be added to it.In addition,Lindsay would not have to rely on only one source.It is possible that good local flour may be sold here even if at a premium because it would have local and fresh flavour.It could be sold to all the local bakeries such as the Kawartha Bakery in Lindsay.There are also other bakeries in town and in Fenelon Falls and Bobcaygeon that might be customers.