ELK POINT – Mayor Parrish Tung made a brief surprise visit to the May 8 meeting of the Elk Point and District Chamber of Commerce, and following the previous week’s federal and provincial announcements of new projects for Elk Point, told the chamber that the projects had “been on the go since the last election.”
Quebec-based Logistik Unicorp is “one of the biggest hemp processing companies” and has a 10-year supply agreement with the Canadian Armed Forces to manufacture uniforms. The company will partner with Frog Lake First Nations in Askiy Hemp LP, to produce the hemp fabric used in the uniforms, the mayor said.
“Council has been very quiet, and we were told not to go public before the announcement. We have had a lot of closed sessions, it’s been a lot of work, and now it can go ahead.”
He asked the chamber for a list of businesses, noting that with construction of the new facility, “we will be asking them to shop local.”
Town CAO Ken Gwozdz added that Askiy “will probably have a job fair” and thanked chamber president Terri Hampson and STEP’s Linda Sallstrom for meeting with the new Askiy Hemp manager the previous week.
He added that the public hearing regarding a hemp food production plant has been pushed back to Sept. 9, and said this would be another step toward Elk Point becoming “a community of hemp.”
