Fish processing companies in Canada are looking for more employees like Joyce Evely.
The Glace Bay woman has worked in fish plants in her home community for 46 years and was on the job again Tuesday at Ka’le Bay Seafoods Ltd. in Glace Bay, as videos promoting careers in the seafood industry were released by the provincial government and local processors.
I love it here, said Evely, noting she can’t imagine herself doing any other job. I love the people, they’re great a bunch to work with.
Lisa MacDonald, also of Glace Bay, has worked at the Ka’le Bay Seafoods plant for close to four years, and said she enjoys the people she works with, and the variety of tasks she takes on each day from sorting fish when they first arrive in the plant, to cutting, packing, and labelling the product.
It’s always something different every day it’s never the same thing, it never gets boring, she said. It’s good hours.
And it’s testimonials like those that the Nova Scotia government and local seafood companies are hoping to spread with a series of seven videos, a website, and information cards that tell the story of the seafood processing industry in Nova Scotia. They feature employees of Louisbourg Seafoods, O’Neil Fisheries Ltd., Clearwater Seafoods, and Premium Seafoods.
The videos and cards were created through a $30,000-project funded by the Department of Fisheries and Aquaculture, in partnership with the Department of Labour and Advanced Education, and Fisheries Minister Keith Colwell was in Glace Bay on Tuesday for their reveal outside Ka’Le Bay Seafoods, a division of Louisbourg Seafoods Ltd.
Colwell said he hopes the new tools will help seafood companies that have told him they are finding it difficult to fill positions in their plants, boats, and onshore facilities.
We’re trying to get people aware of the high value of the fishing industry in the province of Nova Scotia and we’re really trying to attract young people to get into the industry as harvesters, processors, and a lot of high-tech jobs, he said. The industry has changed over the last number of years. A lot of people look at it as just a job at a fish plant but that’s not the case anymore. We’re getting global markets for our products and we’ve hit an all-time high of $1.67 billion of export sales and we’re the biggest seafood producers in Canada.
Adam Mugridge, species development biologist with Louisbourg Seafoods, said they got involved in the project to help get the word out that seafood industry is vibrant, growing and in need of new employees.
Recruiting people in the labour force is a need that we desperately have and we want to change the perception of the industry. The fishing industry has grown, what you may think you know about the fishing industry has changed, he said. “These are good jobs, and we need more people in our area to take advantage of the opportunities the seafood sector has to offer.
The videos and more information about the fishing industry in Nova Scotia can be found online at novascotia.ca/righthere.
TC Media © 2016