Jobs, environment clash at Marystown meeting about $250M salmon farm

A proposal to farm more than seven million salmon inPlacentiaBay every yearreceivedboth praise and condemnationTuesday night at a sometimes raucousmeeting of more than 250 people in Marystown.

Aquaculture company Grieg NL organized the public meetingas part of the environmental impact statement (EIS) it hasbeen ordered to prepare as it seeks approval for its proposal to build a land-based hatchery and a string of sea cages.

If successful, Grieg NL plans to build a hatchery on the Burin Peninsula that will produce immature salmon to be grown to market size at 11sea-cage sites around PlacentiaBay.

Tuesday's meeting which drew aquaculture experts from Norway, Iceland and the U.S. to Marystown was alsosimulcast at sites inSt. John's, Gander and Corner Brook.

Grieg has been trying to get the project off the ground for at least three years.

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Reaction to the company's plans, which wouldcostmore than $250 million to execute, remains highly divided.

"It's a tremendous boost to our business and a tremendous boost to rural Newfoundland," saidPaulLannon,the general manager of Harbour Grace Ocean Enterprises.

Grieg NL is expected to commission Lannon'scompany to buildseven vessels worth more than $3.5 million for its project.

"Now we also have companies in Norway looking at our vessels as a possible addition to their fleets."

Positive effects

Grieg NL'sPerry Power, who helped organize the meetings, believes the project will have a powerfully positive effect on the Burin Peninsula.

This is the future.- Perry Power

"We have a number of historic coastal communities that are under threat and their threat is that people are aging and young people are not staying," Power said.

"The experience in places like Norway and Iceland is that when this industry establishes itself, small rural communities become stable and they start to boom and that's what we're looking for," he said.

"This is the future."

'A lot of malarkey'

But many people remain opposed to the proposal, particularly Grieg NL's contention that it can raise millions of salmon in PlacentiaBay without hurting theenvironment.

RAW: Mayor questions aquaculture plan

7 years ago

Duration 5:34

Hilda Whalen is worried about the environmental impact to farm salmon in Placentia Bay

"I think it's a lot of malarkey," said Whitbourne Mayor Hilda Whalen, whodoesn't believe the project should be allowed to proceed.

"The cages won't work and you can't farm disease-free fish," she said.

"We are about to be bombarded. If anyone in government had any guts at all, then they would stand up against this."

Numerous hurdles yet to clear

After GriegNL has prepared anEIS, the documentwill be reviewed by anenvironmental assessment panel and the provincial environment minister.

They then make recommendations to the provincial cabinet. If ministersagree torelease the project, then GriegNLmust apply for licences and approvals from numerous federal and provincial departments.

Grieg NL officials sayif everything goes as planned, they could start building as soon as the coming fall.

The previous Progressive Conservative provincial government said it would spent $45 millionto buy an equity stake in the salmon farming project.

The current Liberal provincial government has consistently said it has not decided yet.

Salmon conservation advocates have argued the government would put itself in a conflict of interest if it took on an equity stake in the project.