MP, Nathan Cullen, says that he’s dismayed by the closing of the JS. McMillian processing and rendering plant at the end of last month and the loss of all 82 jobs it provided to Prince Rupert residents.
“The reduction plant not being there is critical to the infrastructure of the region and we’re going to have to sit down with the community and find out what options exist,” said Cullen.
Cullen says that having the reduction plant in Prince Rupert “makes perfect sense and only sense to have it there,” but says he doesn’t understand what the obstacles are to keeping the plant open.
“The whims of the fishing industry are difficult to understand even at the best of times. But these are really trying times for the shore workers who are facing an uncertain future, not just in the plants, but in the entire industry,” said` Cullen.
Joy Thorkelson with the United Fisherman and Allied Workers Union has said that the closure of the reduction plant doesn’t make sense because the other processing operations will now be left with nowhere in town to send the offal produced by the processed fish.
Without that service she worries that the entire fish processing industry in Prince Rupert is now at risk since the companies might find it easier to offload the fish here and send it down south where they have reduction plants to be processed.