Indigenous-owned Alberta company making better building blocks with hemp [Video]

A new manufacturing plant in the northeastern Alberta community of Elk Point is blending hemp and other additives into concrete to make lightweight building blocks resistant to weather, fire and mould.

The company, called Asinikahtamwak — in Cree it means “works with rock” — operates from a 13,000-square-foot building on the south end of Elk Point, 215 kilometres northeast of Edmonton.

Frog Lake First Nations owns 51 per of the venture. Edmonton-based Natural Fibre Technologies owns 39 per cent and the Town of Elk Point has a 10-per-cent stake.

Frog Lake First Nations councillor Cliffton Cross is “excited and proud” about the new business that’s already started construction on a two-bedroom, 1,250-square-foot prototype show home in the First Nation community.

The company is also experimenting with smaller projects like greenhouses, ice fishing shacks and one-room cabins constructed from structural insulated panels, another product made at the plant.