Portage la Prairie is still buzzing about the announcement this week that construction on a major agricultural processing facility will begin in the fall. Mayor Irvine Ferris says the city and the RM of Portage have a tax sharing agreement and both municipalities did agree to provide some tax relief to Roquette. The RM will collect 100 per cent of taxes from Roquette, valued at $2.1-million over five years. The total tax revenue will be split between the RM and city in accordance with their tax sharing agreement. The RM and city will then grant 62 per cent, about $1.3-million, back to Roquette and that total tax exemption will be split as follows: The total relief provided by the RM will be approximately $800,000 over five years, or about $160,000 per year, while the city's portion is $106,400 per year for a total of $532,000. The remaining 38 per cent of tax revenue will be split, with 60 per cent going to the RM and 40 per cent to the city.

The net annual tax revenue for the city is about $64,400 for a total of $323,000 over five years. The RM will collect net annual tax revenue of about $97,000 for a total of approximately $485,000 over those same five years.

Ferris adds when council looked at the benefits from having Roquette come to our area, it was clear this would be huge for Portage. Ferris says once the plant is up and running there'll be 150 jobs available, not to mention approximately 300 jobs during the construction phase. He notes the multiplier effect in the local economy in terms of support businesses starting up or expanding is also going to be an enormous plus for the community and the entire region.

Ferris says tax exemptions are the cost of doing business, adding any time an industry comes in there'll be all kinds of "asks" from that company---which could include infrastructure or even a direct grant. He notes in this situation this was an "ask" that both the city and the RM felt was very reasonable in order to get a facility of this size. Ferris says an additional benefit to having the pea processing plant establish itself here is that it will be another large customer for the utility. He adds council felt the benefits of welcoming Roquette would far outweigh the costs.

Note: This story was updated from a previous version to correct number's provided by the city about the total value of taxes collected from Roquette. It used to read "The RM will collect 100 per cent of taxes from Roquette, valued at $1.85-million over five years." Numbers were also updated in explaining the city's annual tax revenue. The story used to read the city will collect net annual tax revenue of $55,784 for a total of $278,920. Further information was added to this article to clarify the RM's annual tax exemption to, and net annual tax income from Roquette.