New Harbour dealt blow as fish plant won’t open in 2018
The Trinity South community of New Harbour is facing an unheard-of predicament, as Daley Brothers has decided not to open the local fish plant for the 2018 harvesting season.
News of the company’s intentions began to trickle through the community over the weekend after employees began receiving notices from Daley Brothers informing them of the company’s decision.
Reached by The Compass Monday afternoon, provincial Fisheries Minister Gerry Byrne said he first heard from concerned workers on Saturday.
The workers said they were surprised equipment at the plant was not being set up for processing, as it normally would this time of year.
“Little did I know that there was actually more to the problem than what was identified
to me on Saturday,” Byrne said, adding that workers who received notice were given options to work elsewhere on the island or in New Brunswick.
As of Monday afternoon, Byrne said, no one in the government had received any communication from Daley Brothers about its decision concerning the plant, which has primarily processed crab since the cod moratorium. Quota cuts to snow crab announced by the federal government earlier this year have created a lot of uncertainty within the industry.
Byrne said he was disturbed by the fact Daley Brothers did not contact the province.
“Had we been advised that this was occurring either prior to or at least simultaneous to the information going to the workers that the plant was closing, we would have had Fisheries and Land Resources staff on the ground in New Harbour,” said the minister.
“There’s a social contract which exists,” Byrne said. “It’s nothing that’s on paper, it’s not regulated, but it’s called the test of human decency. And that social contract would suggest that providing some advance notice to the government so that we can have supports on the ground when the decision is made known would be the right thing to do.”
Daley Brothers purchased the plant in 2012 from Woodland Sea Products Ltd., a locally owned company founded to operate the New Harbour plant in 1973.
Byrne confirmed the department will utilize a program to assist workers affected by the closure in order to obtain short-term employment. Byrne said his staff will also work with other departments to identify potential diversification opportunities to assist the local economy.
“My concern here is that with the resource shortfalls and quota cuts that we all know the federal government has imposed, we all recognize this may not be an isolated case,” he said. “There may be other plants in other parts of the province that may be negatively affected.”
Byrne said he hopes this is not how processors will handle this sort of decision in the future if there are indeed more plant closures this season. He also hopes the federal government will find a way to assist workers, and expects many will contact their member of Parliament.