The province is going to meet with Argyle residents on aquaculture.
After a request from council through a motion, Fisheries minister Kent Smith committed to two public information sessions on the Aquaculture Development Area.
Warden Nicole Albright says residents wanted a face-to-face with the province.
“They’ve agreed to present where we are on the ADA, and where we’re going with it. There will also be an opportunity to ask questions,” said Albright.
In a letter to the municipality, Smith said this will not be a re-engagement or consultation on the five proposals that have been submitted, or anything involved in the process.
The meetings will be held on Tuesday, June 24 from 1 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. and from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at the Glenwood Hall.
The ADA, announced in April, 2024, is a pilot project through the province and Argyle that identified 54 pre-approved sites in Lobster Bay for marine and shellfish aquaculture.
The first applicants were selected this past February, all local entrepreneurs.
Eventually, there will be a 30 day comment period on each of the applications if they are approved by the province.
Albright says from her understanding, that will be done online.
“So that’s why citizens have been asking for this face-to-face time, but again these sessions will just be to present how we got here, and what the next steps are,” she added.
A big reason why the community requested the meetings, is that some aren’t happy with how the process has played out.
They’ve said the Municipality of Argyle did a poor job on public consultations, and they didn’t know the ADA was happening until after it was announced, with fears of it being too close to their coastal properties.
Last year, the municipality said they could have done a better job on communicating the consultation times.
Albright says the file is now in the hands of the province.
“Our part is done. In our meeting with the province, they reassured us that they’re the ones in charge, and they are the ones who should be fielding concerns and questions.”
There have been accusations of conflicts of interest against the municipality in the site selection process from the group ‘Association for Responsible Aquaculture in Argyle,’ and many Freedom of Information requests have been made.
Albright says the claims are false, and that the province was satisfied with the consultations the municipality did.
“Could we have done more? That’s possible, you could always do more, and there’s always something you could do better. After attending the recent Federation of Municipalities conference and hearing Prime Minister Mark Carney speak about how municipal units need self-reliance, it just re-enforced to me that we’ve done the right thing.”
She says there’s been loud negativity about the ADA, but a lot of quiet positivity.
“I encourage any resident to reach out to their councillor if they have concerns. It can be scary to have something new, but we have to think big picture. It’s one of the reasons I wanted to become Warden, because when this gets rolling, it’s going to help grow our municipality.”
The Association says they want to see the process re-started and done fairly.
The province currently has no plans to do more calls for proposals on the other 47 sites.
