Grieg Seafood pausing construction on Marystown expansion project
Project has faced delays before, and Greig says it's still committed to completion
Grieg Seafood Canada says it's putting a pause on completing a large-scale salmon farming facility in the Newfoundland and Labrador community of Marystown.
That decision is largely driven by the inability to find a financing partner and the looming threat of economic tariffs from the United States.
Construction of the 17,500-square-metre post-smolt facility has been delayed before — October 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Now, Grieg Seafood COO Grant Cumming says the project is on hold altogether.
"There's still quite a lot of work to complete the post-smolt facility. We're, I guess, around about halfway through the job. And we still plan on completing it," Cumming told CBC Radio's The Broadcast on Thursday.
"But with the political uncertainty we're facing just now, and the fact that we haven't yet found a partner to help us with our investment plans in Canada, it means that we are postponing it."
The facility would allow Grieg to expand operations in Placentia Bay, allowing more young salmon to be grown and kept on land for a longer period of time.
Cumming said the company doesn't expect layoffs among the 111 local employees.
Despite immense municipal and provincial support in Newfoundland and Labrador, Cumming said, a commitment to ban open-net pen aquaculture in British Columbia by 2029 and economic threats from U.S. President Donald Trump have shareholders making second guesses.
"That certainly has an impact on our confidence, the confidence of our shareholders, to invest in Canada as a whole," he said. "We were still planning to move forward in Newfoundland, safe in the feeling that we had good local support here. But now the tariffs that are being suggested for the U.S., which is our main market for … Newfoundland, is a threat to us."
Despite the project being on hold, Cumming stressed the decision is just a postponement.
He said Grieg is happy with the success of farming in Marystown, and has recently completed initial environmental work to expand into Bay d'Espoir, Burgeo and Port-aux-Basques.
'We need them here': Marystown mayor
Marystown Mayor Brian Keating told CBC News he was disheartened by Grieg's decision to pause construction, but says the town has to believe them when they say it's only a postponement.
He hopes Grieg will stay committed to the region as a key economic driver.
"It's a very viable part of the Burin Peninsula. We need them here, we want them here and we're trying to do [what we can] as a town and a peninsula to keep them here," Keating said.
"If you don't have the people, you don't have the industry here on the peninsula, then everything else gets affected."
He said the town is willing to work with any partner Greig brought into the post-smolt facility if it brought economic stability.
But, Keating did take exception with Cumming's comment that layoffs shouldn't be expected. He said he knows of people outside of the contracting or construction of the facility who have lost their jobs.
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With files from Paula Gale and Carolyn Stokes
