CGC announces update regarding new wallboard manufacturing plant

By John Watson Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

CGC is now only months away from the official grand opening of their new wallboard manufacturing plant northwest of Carseland.

Duane VanDuuren, plant manager for the facility, explained once operational, it will supply Sheetrock® gypsum wallboard products to the western Canadian market.

“This plant is going to be a game changer for the western Canadian market, and not only the builders, but the families and the building owners across western Canada,” he said. “I’m super excited to be part of this team and writing history for CGC in western Canada. As far as where we are at, the build is coming along very quickly and we are progressing as far as the site goes, as well as our people and training and how we are preparing for our start up next year.”

Construction of the 220,000 square foot facility is nearly complete, and the automated equipment has begun to be installed inside.

CGC is emphasizing their commitment to zero waste to landfill, water recirculation, and heat recovery in order to make the facility not only efficient, but also as environmentally friendly as possible.

“We are investing in green energy and offsetting demand from the grid. That’s one example of why this plant is the most sustainable gypsum plant in our network,” said VanDuuren. “We have upgraded our equipment, and the design of our plant was built from the ground up. We are not retrofitting or rebuilding an existing location. We want to be efficient, sustainable, and we can probably say that this is the most sustainable plant we have.”

The first round of onboarding for full-time positions was completed earlier this year, hiring greater than 95 per cent of current staff from the local region.

VanDuuren explained approximately two thirds of the facility’s full staff are currently being onboarded.

“We are drawing the right talent that is going to help grow not only our plan for today, but for future generations, and so we are really excited about that,” he said. “The next step is a lot of preparation. Finish the building, finish our construction of the new equipment, and then with our new team on site, we are starting to build a lot of our standard work and a lot of our practices that are going to make us successful and align with the building and equipment completions.”

A release from CGC indicated the plant is scheduled to open in June 2026, though VanDuuren suggested he hopes to see it open and operational ahead of schedule. An exact date has yet to be provided.