Public Meeting at Wiarton Propeller Club June 3 at 7 PM
By John Francis, Bruce Peninsula Press
A Toronto company, Georgian Bay Salmon, proposes to build a land-based salmon farm on a property on Berford Lake Road, just north of Wiarton. This has sparked stiff resistance from some local residents.
Opponents have created the group Bruce Peninsula Water Watch and the associated website www.smellsfishy.org. They will be holding a public meeting at the Propeller Club in Wiarton on June 3, from 7-9PM.
The company plans to grow 15,000 tonnes of salmon per year, drawing 1,300 litres of water per minute from Colpoy’s Bay and discharging 1,100 litres per minute back into Colpoy’s Bay (approximately 200 litres per minute are lost to evaporation).
The Recycled Aquaculture System (RAS) technology would involve hatching 85,000 salmon eggs per week and growing the fish to 3.7kg. The fish would be shipped off-site for processing.
Georgian Bay Salmon describes their process as unique and extremely efficient, with cutting edge temperature control, monitoring and redundant systems. The opponents describe it as “experimental”.
The company points out that its water consumption would be much lower than other RAS systems and that half the square footage of the facility would be devoted to cleaning up the effluent water before discharging it into Colpoy’s Bay. Opponents insist this is still inadequate.
Construction of Georgian Bay Salmon’s facility would employ up to 400 people; ongoing operations would employ up to 250 (direct and indirect). They commit to local hiring for both construction and ongoing operations.
Georgian Bay Salmon held two public meetings in December, 2021 to announce their ideas and answer questions. They indicated that they are “very early in the process” of getting the required approvals.
The company’s website offers extensive information, including YouTube videos of the PowerPoint presentations from last December’s meetings.
Opponents of the project have been vocal in their criticism, especially on social media. Their website, smellsfishy.org offers YouTube videos and other materials.
