WESTLOCK – Westlock Terminals held its 20th annual general meeting of shareholders at the Westlock Community Hall Nov. 4, with 60 persons in attendance, including Athabasca-Barrhead-Westlock MLA Glenn van Dijken and Town of Westlock mayor Ralph Leriger.
Westlock Terminals had another decent year of grain handling as in his report, CEO Clifford Bell said in the 2020-2021 crop year they handled 163,000 tonnes. Shipments included 1,534 trucks, 826 system hopper cars, 149 private cars and 308 sea cans.
“There was no operational downtime due to COVID,” Bell noted. He said trucking and marketing programs are expanding, and the Terminals has found new markets for grain screenings pellets and hauled 350 tonnes from the west coast to local feedlots. They are also working with a major company on canola and maintaining existing markets and he expects they will be handling more canola in the future.
While the dismantling of the remaining wood elevator has been ongoing for some time, quite a bit of the wood has been salvaged and sold, and a crane is expected as early as this week to bring down the machinery at the top of the elevator. Bell said the days of simply toppling old elevators and hauling the debris away is gone and salvaging as much as possible is the new way to go. Aside from that, there simply would not have been room to bring it down the “old way,” given the location. There are no immediate plans for the space once it has been removed.
He said the Terminals is one of only three remaining independent operartions in western Canada, and they continue to look for new value-added opportunities, such as a cold-press canola plant, oat milling, wheat milling and all of these opportunities have interested investors.
In his report, board chair Gary Golby noted crop yields were better than expected with the heat and drought experienced during the summer. He said the board has challenged the facility, which is a good financial position, to handle more grain than budgeted and they will continue to tweak the strategic plan.
Two board members, Colin Felstad and Magnus vonRennenkampff are retiring, as their terms have expired. Golby thanked them for their years of service and presented them with a token of appreciation. The board in the coming year will include Golby, Jim Greilach, Johann vonRennenkampff, Brian Trueblood, Terry Byvank, Harry DeWindt, Bill Hall, Jim Lawrence, Josh Kaliel and Kent Wierenga.
