A vertical farm that’s under construction in southeast Calgary has been selected as the first project to receive financial support from the Alberta government’s new investment and growth fund.

Ontario-based company GoodLeaf Farms is building its biggest indoor farm in Calgary’s southeast after receiving a $2.73-million grant from the provincial government to locate its next facility in Alberta. The money comes from the new $10-million Investment and Growth Fund, meant to attract companies to the province.

GoodLeaf Farms’ Calgary facility will be a 74,000-square-foot indoor farm within the city in the industrial area along 108 Avenue S.E., and will provide 70 full-time positions once it’s up and running.

The farm in Calgary will be the company’s first in western Canada after opening facilities in Nova Scotia and Ontario. The company uses vertical farming technology to produce leafy-green lettuce products year-round.

“From the outside, it looks like a standard warehouse industrial space,” Jeff McKinnon, the senior vice-president of network development with GoodLeaf Farms, said at a press conference Monday.

“We use height and stack technology to be able to optimize output. And from that, we’re able to reduce water consumption.”

A vertical farm uses about 95 per cent less water than traditional agriculture and produces roughly 50 times the output capacity due to LED lighting, water management, airflow and automation, McKinnon explained.

“Our model is immune to weather events and weather patterns, which allows us to grow the safe and clean product in an indoor environment. And we’re able to eliminate the use of any chemicals,” he said.

McKinnon said the company considered a couple of other western provinces before landing on Alberta. They settled on Calgary because of the open market access to western Canada and the proximity of research institutions that can help improve their business model.

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