TUESDAY, JULY 18, 2017
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SPORTS Tri-Lobster tri-athlete
Summerside, Prince Edward Island
MUST
reads CANADA
More than 120 athletes competed in swimming, biking and running events that were all part of Summerside’s TriLobster triathlon on Sunday.
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Q AGRICULTURE
Fading fast
Learn of losses Officials in British Columbia have managed to tally some of the heartbreaking losses from outof-control wildfires that prompted the provincial state of emergency. A7
WORLD Calling for more Venezuelan opposition leaders called Monday for supporters to escalate street protests after more than 7.1 million people rejected a government plan to rewrite the constitution. A8
THINGS TO
know GAS PRICES GO UP Gasoline prices increased by 2.0 cents per litre (cpl) over the weekend. The Island Regulatory and Appeals Commission approved the increase, which was effective on July 15. There was no change in the price of diesel, furnace oil, stove oil or propane. Including adjustments for taxes, pump prices for regular unleaded gasoline at self-serve outlets now range from 103.5 to 104.7 cpl. Increases in the wholesale price of gasoline over the past two weeks, according to IRAC, were what necessitated the price adjustment. The commission’s next scheduled price adjustment will be on Aug. 1.
OLDEST LIGHTHOUSE
ANDREW VAUGHAN/THE CANADIAN PRESS
Bryan Maynard, a co-owner of Farmboys Inc. with his brother Kyle, is seen in one of their potato fields in Richmond, on Friday. Maynard is calling on families to talk about the future of their farms.
Aging farmers, lack of succession plans put future of family farms at risk BY JESSICA SMITH CROSS THE CANADIAN PRESS RICHMOND
Bryan Maynard says his grandfather, a Prince Edward Island potato farmer, didn’t start talking about retirement until he was 80 years old and had been diagnosed with dementia. At that point, with no succession strategy in place, Maynard and his brother suddenly had to scramble to find a way to keep the farm in the family and just barely managed to do so. The 33-year-old’s situation is not uncommon. A growing number of farmers are nearing retirement without having formally planned for their successors, putting the next gen-
eration of small-scale farming at risk – something Maynard and advocates are urging farming families to think about. “Our grandfather didn’t really want to talk about selling the farm, ever, until it was too late and he had to,” Maynard said. A Statistics Canada study found last year that the average age of Canadian farmers had reached 55 after rising for decades, and 92 per cent of farms had no written plan for who will take over when the operator retires. It also found there were more farmers over age 70, than under 35. Farmlink Christie Young, of Guelph,
Ont., is trying to tackle that issue with Farmlink, a matchmaking service she runs for farm owners and prospective farmers across Canada. She has found there’s no shortage of young people armed with business plans who want to get into farming, and older farmers who want to see their land farmed by a new generation when they retire. The problem, she said, is that many farmers have become heavily leveraged in recent decades, having borrowed against the rising value of their farm properties, which spiked nearly 40 per cent per acre on average between 2011 and 2016, according to Statistics Canada. That means farm owners need
to sell their properties for full market value in order to retire, said Young, so the only buyers tend to be large agricultural operations consolidating farmland in rural areas or, if the farm is in the shadow of a city, property developers. “If you’re a new farmer who’s trying to buy a piece of land and pay for it by working the land, it’s almost an impossible proposition,” she said. Young uses Farmlink to help farm owners and young farmers set up partnerships that begin years before the owner’s retirement, such as lease-to-own arrangements that can allow a new farmer to start small and expand. See FUTURE, page A5
Q NEW BUSINESS
Designer doughnuts Doughnuts by Design offers ‘hole’ new experience for customers
$1.25 plus HST
BY DESIREE ANSTEY JOURNAL PIONEER SUMMERSIDE
A speciality shop in Avonlea Village has scored a hole in one with customers as it whips up fresh daily doughnuts using local ingredients. Doughnuts by Design has a selection of creative doughnuts and mini doughnuts with classic Island toppings and flavours that include fresh lavender, popcorn, chocolate covered potato chips, and beer, to name but a few. “We have all these awesome producers on P.E.I.,” commented co-owner Moyna Matheson, who has operated Samuel’s Coffee House in Summerside for six years. “Whether it’s Cows chocolate covered potato chips, the lavender farm, Upstreet beer (used in one of our glazes), we partner and coordinate on what other people on the Island are doing well.” Innovative ways are used at Doughnuts by Design to reinvent this crowd favourite. “There’s an interest in people seeing how things are produced
DESIREE ANSTEY/JOURNAL PIONEER
Co-owner of Doughnuts by Design, Kip Rosvold, said, “We love doughnuts, everybody loves doughnuts, and there’s no place like this around and we want to make people happy. We are here in the morning at Avonlea Village making fresh doughnuts, and when we expand we will custom design the doughnuts.”
and made, so we wanted to create a product that was unique and fun and that people could actually see it being made in front of them,” grinned Matheson. “In business you’re always thinking of the next creative thing, and that’s where the doughnuts came from.”
Matheson always had a soft spot for doughnuts recounting a memory of her aunt Mary from Summerside. “Aunt Mary was one of 14 kids. She made doughnuts at home, and it’s that nostalgic feeling.” Matheson continued, “The idea was always there, and I did
some travelling this winter to explore other cities to see what they were doing and I thought it was time to bring this idea to P.E.I.” Co-owners Kip Rosvold and Matheson already have their sights set on expansion after they opened their doors to the public on June 22. “We are utilizing Cavendish as a test market to see if people are interested in this product and what other components we can bring to the business. And we definitely want to move it beyond seasonal to a yearround operation, and are currently looking for a location,” acknowledged Matheson. “If people love caramel popcorn, we will put it on a doughnut, so there’s a lot of fun in that and discovering different things.” Matheson and Rosvold invite the public to give feedback on their favourite doughnut toppers. “Maybe they will see that topper on one of our doughnuts in the future,” they concluded. Newsroom@journalpioneer.com
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A P.E.I. landmark for over 170 years, the Point Prim Lighthouse property is receiving upgrades. To mitigate against further shoreline erosion and welcome new tourists, it is undergoing a series of enhancements to ensure the lighthouse’s sustainability. Lawrence MacAulay, minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food, announced $392,534 (nonrepayable) in funding for the Point Prim Lighthouse Society Inc. to update the historical landmark. A total of $318,042 is being provided through ACOA’s Innovative Communities Fund, while $74,492 is being contributed through Heritage Canada’s Canada Cultural Spaces Fund. Permanent washrooms, a gift shop/interpretive space, and an open-air pavilion capable of hosting events will be added as well as parking improvements.