Caleb Nickerson
SHAWVILLE Nov. 17, 2017
On Friday, a group of farmers and local business advisors gathered at the Agricultural hall in Shawville for a forum to discuss issues and challenges that local producers face.
The event was put on by the Pontiac SADC in conjunction with their partners at Caisse Populaire Desjardins, MRC Pontiac and Réseau Agriconseils Outaouais.
SADC business advisor Cindya Labine greeted the attendees at the start of the meeting and introduced the forum’s moderator, Erik Lockhart, a strategy consultant based out of Kingston, Ont.
She later explained that the staff at the SADC first encountered Lockhart at a summit on tourism in Eganville and thought he would be perfect to hold a similar event in the Pontiac, except focused on agriculture.
“I think it’s important to listen to the needs of the region,” she said.
The morning was devoted to detailing the concerns of the producers in the room and the afternoon focused on matching them with the consultants who could give them a hand.
Lockhart asked the attendees, who represented a diverse range of businesses, to write out their most pressing issues and concerns on the laptops that were provided and organized the data on a projector in real time. The farmers ranked their top six concerns by importance, showing which issues the group felt were most pressing.
Many of the concerns and questions had to do with accessing markets, accessing help for business planning and hiring new workers. Lockhart asked the attendees to elaborate on each of their concerns before posing several questions of his own.
After lunch, the group got a chance to meet up with the group of business advisors and find out how they could help answer their questions.
The event was part of SADC Pontiac’s year of agriculture.
