HEMP GROWERS RELUCTANT TO ABANDON THEIR DREAM

DAUPHIN, Man. -- The old curling rink in the middle of the community is
empty. Its doors are locked.

Down the street, an odd-looking German forage harvester sits in the shadow
of a farm supply centre, waiting for the finance company that now owns it
to take it away.

On the west edge of Dauphin, past the recycling plant, an abattoir, the car
insurance claim centre, and the highways maintenance yard, a 190 acre field
lies waiting to be developed.

Outside town, there's the odd quarter-section with thick, wiry hemp stalks
poking through the crusted snow. Long rows of hemp bales stretch across
others.

These are the few visible signs that Dauphin is poised to become the
epicentre for the most ambitious plans for industrial hemp in North
America.

But lately, there have been indications that this community's hemp dreams
will have to be put on hold.

Last summer, farmers here planted all the hemp they could get their hands
on.

They contracted with Consolidated Growers and Processors Inc., an American
company that said it would build two plants on the western outskirts of
Dauphin: one to crush seed, one to process stalks into fibre.

The company made a deal with the community to rent and fix up the old rink
so it could start moving hemp while its plants were being built.

"This was Dauphin's time to get something," explained Jim Pavlin, a local
farmer and vice-president of Parkland Industrial Hemp Growers Co-operative
Ltd., the group of producers who contracted with CGP.

Dauphin, population 8,500 and slowly shrinking, is a regional centre
searching for an industry to set up shop, bring in jobs, and spur economic
growth.

Dauphin and the surrounding rural municipality spent $230,000 on land for
prospective new business.

Two years ago, when provincial laws made it possible for towns of more than
7,500 to call themselves cities, Dauphin jumped at the chance.

The philosophy behind the name change, explained mayor Bill Nicholson, was
that industry would be more receptive to coming to a city rather than a
town.

Last April, when CGP announced it would build in Dauphin, there was a sense
of "euphoria," said Nicholson.

"Everyone sees the potential," he said.

Community leaders said it was the biggest thing to happen to Dauphin since
CN Rail laid down tracks in 1896. Farmers had worked hard to convince CGP
they would grow as many acres of hemp as the company needed.

They were excited about the price the company offered, and enthused about
the challenge of growing something new.

When company officials held their news conference in Dauphin, co-op chair
Joe Federowich got a standing ovation.

"It was very electrical," Federowich recalled, savoring the memory.

"From that point on, it's been a roller-coaster ride."

Since April, no earth has moved and no renovations have been made.

And CGP is now late on its payments to farmers. In this area, the co-op
estimates farmers are owed about $2 million for their hemp seed.

Company officials have not responded to repeated requests for interviews.

Dauphin officials and the farmers continue to keep faith with the company.

They say CGP Inc. has been beleaguered by an overzealous provincial
securities commission, an untimely goods and services tax bill and
uncertainty about industrial hemp's ability to cross the American border.

"We're waiting to see," said Nicholson. "You can't expect a business to
continue to put out substantial sums of money on what-ifs."

Nicholson said company officials have indicated they are prepared to start
work on the temporary plant within four weeks of a green light for hemp
seed imports from the American government.

He called the mood in Dauphin one of "restrained optimism."

"I keep saying that anything worth doing is worth waiting for," he said.

The co-op believes that, no matter what happens in upcoming months, there
will be a hemp plant in Dauphin within the next five years.

"Our seed is here, it's at home," said Federowich, who grew 750 acres of
hemp last summer.

"We're going to come out of this OK, no matter what happens."

He continues to hope that CGP is the company to help hemp farmers reach
their goals.

"We're not going to be the reason for CGP to go away," Federowich said.