P.E.I. fisheries sector gets $3.1M in government funding

The federal and P.E.I. governments are investing a total of more than $3.1 million in the Island's fish and seafood sectors.

The announcement was made during a virtual news conference on Wednesday.

The moneywill go toward nine projects that focus on the implementation of innovative technologies to improve productivity and sustainability within the aquaculture, harvesting and seafood processing sectors.

The governments say the funding will enable local organizations to be more efficient and adapt to meet market requirements.The aquaculture, harvesting and seafood processing sectors contribute $590 million to the economy of P.E.I., and employ as many as 8,000 people at peak production.

Almost $2 million of the money announced Wednesday will go to projects by the P.E.I. Mussel King in Morell and Seafood 2000 Ltd. in Georgetown.

Labour shortage

Mussell King president Esther Dockendorff said the money will help pay for new equipment to create new products and increase efficiency.

It will also eliminate four jobs, but Dockendorff said the company has had a hard time finding and keeping staff for those positions.

"Like many other businesses in rural areas of Atlantic Canada, we're constantly faced with a shortage of labour. So the installation of this equipment has enabled us to condense some of our processes and reduce the number of people that we need in the building by four positions," she said.

"And that is not a bad thing. Those are four less people that we need to try to find on an ongoing basis."

The Atlantic Fisheries Fund, jointly funded by the federal and provincial governments,will continue to invest in projects over the seven-year life of the program, the governments said. The commercial fisheries and aquaculture industry, Indigenous groups, universities, academia, industry associations and organizations, including research institutions, may apply.

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