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Kent’s vision stems from over 20 years of exhaustive research into the issues that affect Canadians and the political, cultural, economic, social, and environmental differences between the provinces. Building on Kent’s biography, a story emerges that showcases the achievements and accomplishments along Kent’s chosen career path.

At the age of 19, while studying civil engineering, Kent co-founded an aircraft company specializing in the restoration of corporate jets, bush planes, helicopters and WWII planes. This company grew to over 50 employees.

Kent then joined the family business. During this time, Kent focused on creating a sustainable agricultural sector in Ontario by travelling the world and convincing the most advanced and progressive farmers to invest and farm in Ontario. Ontario is now one of the most profitable farm regions per acre in the world.

Kent then traveled across Canada, studying the economic, environmental, and society differences between the provinces. After listening to thousands of stories from Canadians across the country, Kent found the most heart wrenching, difficult stories to listen to, were those told at kitchen tables across Saskatchewan at the turn of the century.  Parents would be in tears when their children graduated high school because they knew that their children would leave the Province for better jobs and opportunity:  this was a harsh reality for most Saskatchewan families in the province for a decade. Kent could relate to these stories because his mother’s family had left Saskatchewan five decades earlier for the same reason.

This research culminated into an opportunity that would change Kent’s future and spawn a new business model.  Kent had found the province to test his economic model of sustainability: his nucleus of change was going to be the Saskatchewan Poultry Industry, a sector that comprised the oldest farmers in Canada. At that time, Saskatchewan’s poultry farms utilized the most outdated infrastructure per capita and had the lowest farm and quota values in Canada.

Within 5 years, Saskatchewan’s poultry industry had been transformed into the youngest farming demographic, utilizing the newest infrastructure and the best investment return of all poultry sectors in Canada. In just 10 years after implementing the economic model, Saskatchewan’s population growth rate became the fastest in Canadian history. Now, the hotels have the lowest vacancy rates in North America and the strongest economy in the nation. Furthermore, Saskatchewan was able to weather the global recession of 2008 better than any region in North America.

As Kent worked to implement his economic model for sustainability, he was approached by the Ralph Klein’s cabinet in Alberta to offer assistance in solving their migration problem. Kent adised them what they should do and also forecasted the reduced flow of workers migrating from Saskatchewan as a result of the work he had done in that province. The new model would see Saskatchewan’s workers staying with their families instead of moving out of Saskatchewan for work. Five years later, migration patterns slowed to Alberta and the population of Saskatchewan began to expand at a record pace.

In 2007, Kent and his wife Joni purchased Sun Country Farms and quickly became the first manufacturing company in Saskatchewan to use 100% green electricity. Together, they created incentives for staff to move closer to the plant, in order to spend more time with their families rather than spending the same time commuting. They launched a line of high quality bird feeders made from recycled plastic milk jugs, which to date has diverted approximately 1 million jugs from landfills. Jointly, their goal is to create an economically and environmentally sustainable value chain structure where birdfood can be farmed, cleaned, processed, bagged and distributed to the retailer and arrive to the consumers backyard with virtually zero emissions.

In addition to Sun Country Farms, Kent owns an environmentally friendly custom seed cleaning company, which uses waste products to heat many surrounding houses and businesses using carbon neutral renewable heat, instead of coal, the source for heating the facilities previously.

Kent is a steward for environment. Kent currently drives a 100% electric vehicle which emits zero emissions, has a range of almost 400 km per charge, and can go 0-100 km/h in a mere 3.7 seconds. He also drives a new extended range plug-in electric hybrid 4×4- a 400hp, full-size pick up truck that gets better fuel economy than most economy cars.

Recently, Kent has been quoted that ” he will not create a company unless the world will benefit from its existence”.

As the President and Founder of Sun Country Highway, Kent hopes to move one step closer to his vision of creating the most economically, socially, and environmentally sustainable country in the world.

To be Continued…