Charlottetown fish plant expansion brings jobs from N.S. to P.E.I.

A long-running P.E.I. fish plant is getting set to expand and hire more workers, but the good news here comes at the expense of a community on the mainland.

True North Seafood in Charlottetown currently employs 86 people full time, but demand for its product has spiked in recent years and it is now getting ready to ratchet up production.

The company says its needs to hire 10 to 15 additional staff.

Increasing production

"It's very good for the operations here," said Ivan Nowlan, general manager at True North. 

"It will increase our production by about 25 per cent so it will bring on new employees. It will also hopefully add some new equipment to the facility as well."

A million pounds of smoked salmon roll off the production line every year at True North. It's sold in grocery stores across Canada as well as in restaurants and on airlines in the U.S., with new markets opening up in China.

The facility operated for decades under the name Atlantic Fish Specialties and the plant has undergone a couple of

Jobs gained, jobs lost

The company says strong demand for a new product — hot-smoked candied salmon — is now driving the need to expand.

But that comes at a cost to a community in Nova Scotia.  

It's not an easy decision to shift operations and potentially have to displace families.— Joel Richardson

True North's parent company is closing its smoked salmon plant in Sherbrooke, N.S., next month, to move production to P.E.I.. That will result in the loss of 18  jobs at St. Mary's River Smokehouse.

'Not an easy decision'

Cooke Aquaculture, a family-owned New Brunswick company with operations world-wide, bought the Nova Scotia plant last fall.

"It's not an easy decision to shift operations and potentially have to displace families at any time but we have met with all the individuals that work at the St. Mary's River Smokehouse," said Joel Richardson, vice-president of public relations at Cooke.

"We've offered them positions in other locations, some here in Prince Edward Island, and also in New Brunswick in comparable positions."

The manager of the Charlottetown plant says some St. Mary's employees are seriously considering moving to P.E.I. for jobs.

The company said it will start handling organic salmon next month, and intends to build an addition to the Charlottetown plant.

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