Wheat board to build new Manitoba grain facility

The Canadian Wheat Board is building another grain-handling facility in Manitoba as it gears up for privatization.

The wheat board says the new elevator to be built near St. Adolphe, south of Winnipeg, will be able to store 34,000 tonnes of grain when it begins operating in 2016.

The Crown-owned organization says the facility will provide excellent rail access to its Thunder Bay terminal as well as to western ports, the U.S. and Mexico.

The CWB has been busy buying and building to strengthen its network, which includes other grain facilities in Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec.

The company also plans to add a grain facility in Alberta to its holdings.

Under federal law, the CWB is to be privatized no later than July 31, 2017, but the board says it expects to beat that deadline and hopes to present its plan to Ottawa early next year.