Working with Northern Communities

In 2018, Growcer partnered with Makivik Corporation to launch a project in Kuujjuaq, a coastal northern village in the Nunavik region of Quebec.

If you’re familiar with Growcer, you know about our connection to the North. If you’re not, we’ll explain why the North, what some of our current northern projects look like, and more broadly, what it means to work collaboratively with northern communities.

The Start

The idea for Growcer started in Iqaluit in 2015. While running entrepreneurship workshops as part of Enactus uOttawa, co-founders Alida Burke and Corey Ellis witnessed firsthand how the high cost of fresh, healthy food was hurting northerners. After community conversations and multiple return trips, they landed on the idea of a modular hydroponic farm as a possible sustainable solution.

Today, Growcer partners with more than 20 communities across Canada to grow fresh produce locally. The farms go beyond produce, acting as hubs for community engagement, employment, education and local economic development. While we’ve gone on to partner with non-remote communities, schools, non-profits, and grocery stores - the North remains a key part of our story.

Growcer in Kuujjuaq

In 2018, a Growcer project launched in Kuujjuaq, a coastal northern village in the Nunavik region of Quebec. The project launched in partnership with the Makivik Corporation. Makivik means “To Rise Up” in Inuktitut, and is a fitting name for an organization mandated to protect the rights, interests and financial compensation provided by the 1975 James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement, the first comprehensive Inuit land claim in Canada.

Kuujjuaq’s farm operates out of the local store, Newviq’vi, and a team of six employees co-manage the system. They grow mountain sorrel (qungulit) and lettuce. For the past two years, the team continued to have consistent, successful harvests.

Around 70 per cent of what’s grown is sold through the store, with the rest distributed among community organizations such as elders’ homes and daycares.

Working with the “North”

Growcer partners with six northern communities, but each project is different. To group communities under a northern umbrella would simplify and flatten communities beyond recognition. Growcer in Kuujjuaq is different from Growcer in Yellowknife from Growcer in Churchill.

Even within one community, there are a range of perspectives and goals for the future.

“A community is a group of people that’s not homogenous, they have different perspectives, people are less engaged and others are more engaged.”

Nathan Cohen-Fournier previously held the position as head of the economic development department for Makivik Corporation and was involved in launching growing projects in Kuujjuaq and Inukjuak. He shares that when deciding what projects to undertake, there’s rarely a homogenous vision. For some northerners, hydro-electric projects are a priority to reduce the reliance on diesel fuel. For others, building infrastructure such as elders’ homes or hatcheries for Arctic Char are higher priorities. Sometimes projects are selected based on available capacity or funding.

“You try to engage with as many community members as possible. In reality, you don’t necessarily end up mobilizing the whole community, sometimes you just need a core group of people and a few key local organizations that support you,” Cohen-Fournier starts. “I think that it’s a kind of myth that there are communities where everyone is coming together. Just like anywhere, a community is a group of people that’s not homogenous, they have different perspectives, people are less engaged and others are more engaged.”

It is why, for any project, community mobilization plays a key role in its success. For example, the Pirursiivik Project located in Inukjuak opted for a phased approach that introduced greenhouse training, cold frames, indoor gardening, and hydroponic towers over a few years before installing a full Growcer farm.

Building projects with longevity