A New Brunswick company is planning to build the largest single aquaculture operation in Canada on the south coast of Newfoundland, with taxpayer support from the federal and provincial governments.
Cooke Aquaculture, a privately held company that is already well established in New Brunswick, is planning to expand dramatically its salmon farming operations based near Belleoram.
Cooke Aquaculture says its plans for salmon farming near Belleoram will soon include about 200 employees, and could involve thousands.
(CBC)
Cooke currently operates three small sites near Belleoram. It intends to expand with a hatchery and farms capable of producing almost 18,000 tonnes of salmon per year.
Chief executive officer Glenn Cooke said the project will bring more than just jobs to a region devastated by the collapse of traditional fisheries.
"We on the East Coast must take matters into our own hands and create our own destiny," said Cooke.
"I want to turn the tide to go against the flow to stop the stream of young people that are leaving our region to go west. Let's build a strong economy together and bring these people back home."
Cooke currently employs about 28 people in Belleoram. The expansion will bring full-time annual employment up to about 200.
Cooke plans to invest about $135 million in the project.
About 18,000 tonnes of salmon will be harvested each year from farms Cooke Aquaculture is building along Newfoundland's south coast.
(CBC)
The Newfoundland and Labrador government is spending $10 million on it, and in return is obtaining an equity stake.
The Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency is spending $6 million, while the Department of Fisheries and Oceans is putting in $4.5 million.
Tom Rideout, Newfoundland and Labrador's minister of fisheries and aquaculture, said the money will be well spent.
"These jobs will not be on Water Street," he said, referring to a key business area in St. John's.
"They'll be jobs in coastal communities on the south coast of this province."
The amount of employment could multiply, Cooke said. He said if things work out well, as many as 8,000 people in Newfoundland and Labrador could be working for Cooke within a generation. Cooke currently employs about 1,200 people in New Brunswick.
The company is scouting for a plant to process the salmon it will farm in its Newfoundland sites. It has already had an eye, for instance, on an idled Fishery Products International plant in Fortune. Cooke said the company may consider another site on the Connaigre Peninsula.
As well, no decisions have been made on where to locate a hatchery.
Belleoram Mayor Steward May said the Cooke operation has already sparked a recovery in his community of about 500 residents.
"It's amazing how alive our town has come, and this today is unbelievable," May said.
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