Cermaq Canada hosted a public information today at the Hubbards Fire Hall. Photo: Evan Taylor
Cermaq Canada hosted a public information session today in Hubbards about their proposed salmon farm developments.
While the session was supposed to inform and answer questions the public may have had it quickly turned into a demonstration of the lack of support there is for a salmon farm.
During the Q&A David Wimberly of St. Margarets Bay asked the crowd to raise their hands if they supported the salmon farm, no one raised their hand. He then asked them who opposed it which was met with loud cheers.
Another man who identified himself only as Bill was far more pointed “I hear everyone asking technical questions like you’re already here, I want to go on the offensive. We don’t want you here and I’d be happy if we didn’t see you again.”
Managing Director of Cermaq Canada David Kiemele spoke at the event and said currently they are holding meetings like these to gauge how communities feel about their operations “We have said throughout this process that we want to be in a community that welcomes us.”
A full house at the Hubbards Fire Hall for Cermaq’s public information session. Photo: Evan Taylor
After his presentation, we asked what his takeaway from the meeting was “I’ve only been here three days so right now we need to take everything we’re hearing and work from there.”
Many of the crowd were critical of the government, specifically the Minister of Fisheries and Aquaculture Keith Colwell. General sentiments were that the government had invited Cermaq to explore Nova Scotia as an option before checking with communities to see if they would welcome them.
The event drew a sizable crowd for a meeting on a Wednesday afternoon with well over a hundred in attendance. There were supposed to be two additional sessions at 5:30 and 7:30 but Cermaq announced they had cancelled those. When asked for the reason the company said they had “pressing matters to attend to.”
