Mitchelmore questions future of Marystown facility

For Immediate Release –

Thursday, January 19, 2012

NDP Fisheries critic Christopher Mitchelmore (MHA, The Straits – White Bay North) says he is concerned the people of the province will be left on the hook for any clean-up of the closed Marystown fish plant facility.

Ocean Choice International ― the current owner of the facility ― has made it clear they will not be processing any more fish there, and will be selling the facility.

Mitchelmore says his fear is the company will gut the facility of valuable equipment and then try to walk away from the site. He says government must ensure the people it will hold OCI accountable for all the company’s responsibilities regarding the facility.

“The people of Englee, in my district, know all too well what happens when the owner of a fish plant isn’t held to its responsibilities for the site after the enterprise closes,” says Mitchelmore. “They know government will do nothing to help them.

“I’d hate to see the people of Marystown, and the people of this province, stuck with another expensive, and possibly dangerous environmental clean-up like the former paper mill in Grand Falls-Windsor and, of course, the disintegrating plant in Englee that is causing so much hardship and worry.”