Former mayor Al Delaney, Glenn Cooke, Darrell Dexter, Sterling Belliveau at the 2012 announcement by Dexter government of a $25 million loan and grant package for Cooke Aquaculture
Return the money, says Belliveau
Shelburne mayor Karen Mattatall told SCT in a recent interview that her fellow councilors are backing her proposal to request any funding slated for Cooke Aquaculture under the 2012 $25 million loan package to be directed toward economic development in Shelburne.
In 2012, the Dexter DNP government approved a $25 million loan package to Cooke, based in part on Cooke's commitment to build a $8 million salmon processing plant in Shelburne which would create 300 new full-time, well-paying jubs in Shelburne and hundreds of indirect jobs in the area.
Cooke Aquaculture, which has received $18 million of the package to date, said recently that there are now no plans to build the plant in Shelburne.
The Council voted at the most recent meeting to send a letter to the province requesting that any funds targeted to that project be instead invested in economic development projects in Shelburne.
The previous strong support for Cooke's operations here, said Mattatall, was based in a large part on promises they made to make sustantial investments in Shelburne.
"Since the largest part of the commitment from Cooke was building the fish plant, and since $18 million has been given to Cooke and not used in Shelburne," says Mattatall, "we believe that the province should be investing economic development dollars here."
Cooke has not disclosed where the $18 million in funds have been used, but since 2012, they have been on a buying spree, acquiring farmed fish and wild fish operations in the USA, Chile and Spain. They are currently negotiating to acquire an operation in Peru.
Previously, Queens-Shelburne MLA - and former Fisheries and Aquaculture minister Sterling Belliveau has said that, since they have renegged on the agreement he crafted with them in 2012, Cooke should return the $18 million. “I’ve said all along that if Cooke doesn’t meet their obligation to the community and the province then they should immediately repay any loans they have received with interest. I’m extremely disappointed Cooke has not lived up to its commitment to build a processing facility in Shelburne and the government is taking the correct action by recalling the loan,” Belliveau said.
Cooke has also been in the news recently regarding a recall of salmon products and an announcement by a major consumer group that their Atlantic salmon farmed in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Newfoundland should be on the "do not eat" list.
SEE PREVIOUS STORIES:
Editorial: Why no government action on $25 million Cooke Aquaculture package?
Cooke says "NO!" to Shelburne fish plant
Premier McNeil calling in Cooke loan?