Cape Breton plant scrambling after Victoria County decides to stop accepting seafood waste

Victoria County has given a northern Cape Breton fish plant less than three weeks to stop sending seafood waste to the dump.

The county said the move is necessary because of new provincial regulations, but the general manager of Victoria Co-operative Fisheries said the plant is the largest employer in the county and now he's scrambling to keep the operation in business.

Osborne Burke said the municipality doesn't seem to care about the possible impact of its decision.

"The question is why is the county so determined to shut us down or put us out without coming with solutions to the table?" he said.

"In most cases, you would believe that your municipality or local government would be willing to work with you."

Burke said the fish plant pays the county about $15,000 a year to send about 180 tonnes of lobster and crab shells to the dump in nearby Cape North.

Changing deadline 'not reasonable,' says GM

He said last month, the county's chief administrative officer sent a letter saying the practice would end in September. Then last week, Burke got another letter setting a new deadline of April 30.

Snow crab processing started Monday and the plant typically finishes in September.

"Realistically, it could face closure unless we can find some other options," Burke said. "Suddenly changing and removing the deadline down to April 30 is not reasonable."

According to council minutes and correspondence with Burke over the last month, new provincial regulations mean there's not enough room in the Cape North dump to accept construction and demolition materials, waste wood, and the fish plant offal.

But Burke isn't buying that. The plant manager said he believes the municipality has been uninterested in supporting the fish plant for several years now.

"When Hurricane Fiona struck, we had federal ministers on site — both federal MPs from Cape Breton, the provincial fisheries minister flew in, the premier called, and I'm still waiting for a visit, a phone call, something from our local municipality. Nothing."

Neither CAO Leanne MacEachen nor Warden Bruce Morrison would comment.

County says it's looking into alternatives

In an email Monday, communications officer Jennifer Dagsvik said the county is "exploring viable alternatives to support Victoria Co-operative Fisheries Ltd., and is unable to comment publicly on discussions at this time."

The co-op employs about 20 people year-round and up to 125 people during the peak processing season.

Its payroll is about $3.5 million and the company buys up to $15 million worth of seafood from local fishers, with international sales of processed snow crab and live lobster totalling nearly $50 million.

According to a consultant's report done for Victoria County in 2021, other seafood processors in Cape Breton truck their waste off-island.

The Cape Breton Regional Municipality's manager of solid waste, Francis Campbell, said local fish plants used to send their offal to CBRM's composting facility, but they haven't done so for years.

He said CBRM would be happy to take the waste, because the high nitrogen levels would blend well with the mostly carbon-based compost materials.

"It's something that we would certainly appreciate coming here," Campbell said. "It really mixes well with our other organics."

Burke said the co-op is considering going to court to get an injunction that would give the company more time to look into trucking the waste elsewhere.