11 Nova Scotia seafood companies reel in $4.8M from Ottawa

Eleven Nova Scotia seafood processors and exporters will receive $4.8 million from a federal fund announced nearly a year ago.

Last April, the federal government created the $62.5-million Canadian Seafood Stabilization Fund to bolster the industry during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

On Wednesday, federal Fisheries Minister Bernadette Jordan announced where some of that money will go.

"The projects are helping businesses construct cold storage facilities, improve quality control, make modifications to processing facilities to protect against COVID-19 and expand seafood processing facilities," said Jordan in a live announcement held by video conference. 

Most of the support was made in repayable loans of between $57,892 and $750,000. 

High Liner Foods of Lunenburg, N.S., received a grant of $404,092 for COVID-safety refits of its production lines. 

Jordan said she expects the money to create up to 60 jobs in western Nova Scotia. 

Extra storage 'very important' during pandemic

The operations manager of Hailmar Fisheries, Jamie Stuart, attended the virtual announcement as a member of the Nova Scotia Seafood Alliance. 

Stuart said Hailmar, a family-owned live lobster exporter in Lockeport, will use its $500,000 repayable loan to build cold storage tanks capable of holding over 200,000 pounds of lobster.

"The extra storage capacity is very important for us during the pandemic," Stuart said. 

"There are times when the market is busy and there's times when the market is slow. And having the extra storage capacity to be able to hold all of the products we are committed to buying is very important for us right now."

Stuart said Hailmar will also use the loan to buy an automatic lobster grading machine. 

"It helps us with being able to handle additional product. But it also helps us to deal with labour shortages at the current moment in rural Nova Scotia," he said. 

Funding announced nearly a year ago

The Canadian Seafood Stabilization Fund was announced in April 2020, during the early weeks of the pandemic. 

Jordan said there are reasons it took 11 months to distribute the money. 

"We had to actually make sure we had the program in place that people were able to apply to. This does take some time," Jordan said. 

"We wanted to make sure we worked with industry to find out exactly what their requirements were. We needed to be flexible with this funding."

Jordan said $42.7 million from the fund has been allocated to companies in Atlantic Canada. 

The balance is slated for businesses in British Columbia and Quebec.