By Alexandra Brothers, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter / September 1, 2023 Edition
The past year has been something of a roller-coaster ride for St. Mary’s residents with regard to the newly re-opened fish plant. After the initial excitement of receiving a crab processing license last year, the town has met some frustrating setbacks this season. However, things are finally looking up again for the town, said Mayor Steve Ryan.
Obtaining the processing license was a major and protracted ordeal for St. Mary’s last year. The Province has long had a moratorium on the creation of new licences because of the overcapacity created in the 1970s and 1980s, when politicians handed out processing licences like bingo cards, which contributed to the conditions that caused the cod moratorium. So, it was questionable whether St. Mary’s would even get a licence. In fact, the plant had had licences to process several species, but as the ownership of the facility changed hands over the years, the licences were eventually lost. With a new owner in place for the plant, Mayor Ryan and others lobbied hard to get a crab processing licence back for St. Mary’s because of the economic benefits that plant jobs would bring to the community.
This year, with the licence finally in place, came a new obstacle: the stalemate between the province’s harvesters and processors over the price to be paid for crab at the wharf.
“The price is less than half of what it was last year,” said Ryan. “That’s a big hit to the fishing enterprises and I guess to the processors too.”
The delayed harvest was challenging for St. Mary’s because without raw material, the plant could not operate. This lull caused a “cloud” to settle over the town, said Ryan who likened the previous enthusiasm in the community to the excitement a child feels on Christmas Day.
The delay was especially troublesome considering the amount of resources the new owner had put into the plant.
“This group is after investing a large sum of money into that facility,” said Ryan, describing the upgraded plant as one of the most “state-of-the-art buildings in Newfoundland.”
Fortunately for the town, the delay only lasted around four weeks. “Once it got going, and once they got the few bugs worked out of their system, it went pretty good,” said the mayor of operations at the plant. By the end of the season, the plant had met its initial expectations, he said.
“The spinoff from the plant is just hard to describe,” he added.
The crab industry has revived St. Mary’s and the surrounding communities, said Ryan. After having one of the highest demands in the province for employment from the Community Enhancement Employment Program (CEEP) last year, what in the old days used to be called ‘make-work,’ St. Mary’s had no need for it this year, reported the mayor.
“That’s a success story for our town, for the government… and for us as taxpayers,” he said.
Another boost to the community this year came from the influx of foreign workers who were hired to help staff the plant, said Ryan. Between 80 and 100 foreign workers, mainly from Mexico, were hired to complete the work force at the plant, which requires a couple hundred staff to operate. These temporary members of the community present “a win-win for everybody in the town,” said Ryan. They were welcomed into the community with open arms, “and it’s a sad day to see them all go back,” he said. Most of the temporary workers are returning home this week, but some of them are reluctant to leave, he said.
“Some are trying to stay in our community, actually,” said Ryan. “They’re going through different avenues to get permission to stay in the province and they want to live in our community.”
There is only one thing hindering the newfound success in St. Mary’s, said the mayor. The town’s sole issue is a government-imposed cap on the total volume of crab that can be processed there. He explained there are a lot of politics involved with licensing and although the licensing board did not impose any conditions on the license for St. Mary’s, when it went through the government, the Minister capped the raw material the plant could process at 2.5 million pounds.
“That should not have happened,” said Ryan. “We’re going to have to start working now to get that cap lifted off our license. It’s not fair to the operator after investing so much money — not government money, their own money. It just kind of ties their hands in doing business.”
If the town succeeds in lifting the cap, said the mayor, “the future is very bright for St. Mary’s.”
