Newfoundland seeks to expand aqua industry
The aquaculture industry in Canada’s easternmost province is currently producing about CAD$ 200 million (~€ 138 million, and it provides employment for about 1,000 people. The province has been supportive of the development of aquaculture in Newfoundland, and the current government is committed to continued investment, “as provincial finances permit”. According to an industry insider, the government investments in aquaculture have been very small compared with the benefit and returns they have generated.
Ashley Fitzpatrick of The Telegram provided more details from a press conference held yesterday;
Marking rapid growth in aquaculture in Newfoundland and Labrador since 2006, the provincial government is looking to the future with a new strategy to support sustainable growth in the aquaculture industry. The strategy, released today, lays out a framework for roughly the next five years, identifying focus areas for the government. Priorities will be aquatic animal health, aquaculture waste management, environmental monitoring, wastewater treatment, farmed and wild fish interactions, supportive financial programs, human resources planning, supply chain logistics planning, regulatory structure, communications, research and development.
The strategy is not the first for the province. Since a plan was adopted in 2000, total production has increased from 2,718 tonnes valued at $13.6 million, to 26,551 tonnes valued at $197 million, the latter as of 2013, the document notes. “That’s a real success for rural Newfoundland and Labrador,” said Vaughan Granter, minister of Fisheries and Aquaculture. The new strategy is largely about management, but also marks areas for potential government investment going forward. It has no specific dollar value attached, no estimate on an expected total. Granter said it, instead, lays out where financial support will be directed “as the finances of the province permit.”
The local industry produces mainly salmon and mussels and currently employs about 1,000 people, overwhelmingly focused in the Connaigre Peninsula on Newfoundland’s South coast and the island’s Notre Dame Bay area. “Anyone who has an interest in aquaculture was consulted on this,” said Cyr Couturier, president of the Newfoundland Aquaculture Industry Association, on the strategy, citing a two-year incubation period for what has been released.
Couturier pointed to the industry investment drawn into rural communities and year-round jobs. “The investment is very small, compared to what the returns have been. It’s demonstrable,” he said.
He credited the provincial government with being a leader in developing provincial legislation specific to aquaculture. Also on the regulatory side, he said the industry is still lobbying federally for changes to the Fisheries Act, to provide for an aquaculture-specific act at the federal level. The industry locally is looking forward to a report to be released in the coming weeks, capturing estimates on the total value of the industry to the province, one including community-based spinoffs. “The potential growth for the aquaculture industry in the province is absolutely huge,” Granter said.
In facing reporters at Confederation Building in St. John’s, the minister was also asked about another report, issued Monday by auditor general Terry Paddon. In that report, Paddon said the provincial government has not been careful enough as it provides financial support to industry players. Specifically, the auditor general said Aquaculture Capital Equity Program criteria were not clearly defined, compliance with terms and conditions of loans issued to industry companies were not closely watched and the province did not effectively provide oversight on he completion of a cod demonstration farm. “We’ll continue to work with the auditor general in the weeks and months ahead, as we move the aquaculture strategy forward,” Granter said. Couturier noted the AG’s work did not extend to how the money was used by industry.
