{"id":6721,"date":"2024-02-21T16:20:22","date_gmt":"2024-02-21T20:20:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/?p=6721"},"modified":"2024-02-25T18:18:40","modified_gmt":"2024-02-25T22:18:40","slug":"fish-farm-hearings-on-hold-as-new-chair-appointed-in-bizarre-turn-of-events","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/2024\/02\/21\/fish-farm-hearings-on-hold-as-new-chair-appointed-in-bizarre-turn-of-events\/","title":{"rendered":"Fish farm hearings on hold as new chair appointed in ‘bizarre’ turn of events"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Tim Cranston is the new chairman of the Nova Scotia Aquaculture Review Board. (Facebook)<\/p><\/div>\n

By Rick Conrad<\/strong><\/p>\n

The chairwoman of the Nova Scotia Aquaculture Review Board is out and a new chairman is in.<\/span><\/p>\n

Groups getting ready for hearings into a proposed fish farm expansion in Liverpool Bay got a surprise this week when they were told chairwoman Jean McKenna is no longer on the board, and that hearings set for March 4 to 8 in Liverpool are cancelled<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Her replacement is Tim Cranston, who was appointed to the board on Feb. 16, 2023, and who ran for the Progressive Conservatives<\/a> in the last provincial election.<\/span><\/p>\n

Cranston is a lawyer with 20-plus years’ experience for two marine biotech companies, according to his biography on the review board’s website. He also owned and operated two rockweed leases during that time. And he was the co-founder of Natural Ocean Products.<\/span><\/p>\n

As a candidate for the Tories in Halifax Atlantic, he lost to Liberal MLA Brendan Maguire.<\/span><\/p>\n

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(Nova Scotia PC Party Facebook page)<\/p><\/div>\n

Cranston was appointed to the review board for a three-year term by then Fisheries and Aquaculture Minister Steve Craig.<\/span><\/p>\n

Former chairwoman McKenna had been reappointed member and chairwoman at the same time as Cranston. But according to the list of recent appointments<\/a> to agencies, boards and commissions as of Feb. 16, 2023, her term expired on Feb. 15, 2024. McKenna is still listed as the chairwoman of the Nova Scotia Police Review Board.<\/span><\/p>\n

Jamie Simpson with Juniper Law represents one of the intervenors, 22 Lobster Fishermen of Liverpool Bay. Simpson said he received a \u201chigh priority\u201d email on Tuesday from the board\u2019s clerk telling him that the March hearing dates were cancelled and that McKenna was no longer on the board.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cCertainly, it came out of the blue and at a fairly late stage of planning for this hearing. From my experience, I\u2019ve certainly never seen or heard of a decision maker being switched right where we\u2019re in mid-stride here just getting ready to go into the first scheduled portion of the hearing coming up in early March just a couple of weeks away here. So it was quite surprising, that’s for sure.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Simpson said the board gave no reason. The board had also set aside April 2 to 5 for the hearing at the Best Western Plus in Liverpool. Simpson said those dates still stand.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s no small feat to get several days in a row scheduled among all the diverse parties here, so it\u2019s a challenge. So when they had the March dates nailed down it was an accomplishment and to see them cancelled, it\u2019s a shock. But I can only guess that that has to do with the new chair needing time to get up to speed.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Kelly Cove Salmon, which is owned by Cooke Aquaculture, applied to the board in 2019 for an expansion of their fish farm operation in Liverpool Bay.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Kelly Cove wants to increase its farm near Coffin Island to 20 pens from 14 and to include trout as well as salmon. It also wants to set up 40 pens at two new sites off Brooklyn and Mersey Point. It could mean up to 1.8 million farmed salmon in the bay, compared to about 400,000 now.<\/span><\/p>\n

More than 150 residents, businesses and community groups filed written submissions with the board. Five groups were granted intervenor status at the hearings: Protect Liverpool Bay, the Region of Queens, the Brooklyn Marina, 22 Lobster Fishermen of Liverpool Bay, and Kwilmu\u2019kw Maw-Klusuaqn, which is representing the Acadia First Nation.<\/span><\/p>\n

Joel Richardson, spokesman for Cooke Aquaculture, said Wednesday he was waiting for more information from the board.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI’m really not offering any additional comment on it. We\u2019ll have our communication with them and we\u2019ll go from there.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston came out against<\/a> the project at an event organized by the South Queens Chamber of Commerce in Liverpool on Feb. 7.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI think some areas are great for aquaculture and I think that some others are maybe not the best place for it.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOn this specific question on Liverpool Bay, \u2026 I personally don\u2019t think Liverpool Bay is a suitable place for it. That\u2019s my personal opinion. I respect the process, the independent review board will do their process and will have hearings. They\u2019ll do their thing. But my personal opinion is I don\u2019t think Liverpool Bay is a suitable place for it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Queens MLA Kim Masland, who is also Nova Scotia’s public works minister, has spoken against the expansion since she was an Opposition MLA. She also repeated her stand against it at the same event.<\/span><\/p>\n

Masland submitted a letter to the review board, but it was rejected<\/a> because it said that it had to be free of the \u201cappearance of any possible influence\u201d by elected officials.<\/span><\/p>\n

QCCR asked the review board for comment on the delay and on McKenna\u2019s status.<\/span><\/p>\n

In an email, board clerk Stacy Bruce referred questions about board appointments to the minister of fisheries and aquaculture.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cInformation about the upcoming public hearing in Liverpool on applications by Kelly Cove Salmon Ltd. Is posted on the Board\u2019s website,\u201d he wrote.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Bruce said new hearing dates would be posted on the board’s website when they’re available.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for Fisheries and Aquaculture Minister Kent Smith could not be reached Wednesday.<\/span><\/p>\n

Lawyer Jamie Simpson says that despite the \u201cbizarre\u201d turn of events, he and his clients continue to prepare for the hearings.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cLooking forward to representing the interests of the lobster fishermen with respect to the potential impact of this massive aquaculture site on their livelihoods and also the ability it would have to navigate safely through Liverpool Bay.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Email: rickconradqccr@gmail.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Listen to an audio version of this story below<\/p>\nhttps:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/newarbchairfeb2124.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Rick Conrad The chairwoman of the Nova Scotia Aquaculture Review Board is out and a new chairman is in. Groups getting ready for hearings into a proposed fish farm expansion in Liverpool Bay got a surprise this week when they were told chairwoman Jean McKenna is no longer on the board, and that hearings […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,5],"tags":[1777,1586,1771,48,1662,363,1770,1767,1765,1725,1768,1474,1778,31,1760,39,1475,1589,1587,1774,1769,1476,1773,49,1779,1776,1775,1766,98,1772],"class_list":["post-6721","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-community-news","category-news-posts","tag-22-lobster-fishermen-of-liverpool-bay","tag-aquaculture","tag-brendan-maguire","tag-brooklyn","tag-coffin-island","tag-fish-farms","tag-halifax-atlantic","tag-jamie-simpson","tag-jean-mckenna","tag-joel-richardson","tag-juniper-law","tag-kelly-cove-salmon","tag-kent-smith","tag-kim-masland","tag-kwilmukw-maw-klusuaqn","tag-liverpool","tag-liverpool-bay","tag-mersey-point","tag-nova-scotia-aquaculture-review-board","tag-open-pen-fish-farms","tag-progressive-conservatives","tag-protect-liverpool-bay","tag-provincial-election","tag-queens-county","tag-steve-craig","tag-the-brooklyn-marina","tag-the-region-of-queens","tag-tim-cranston","tag-tim-houston","tag-tories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6721","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6721"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6721\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6769,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6721\/revisions\/6769"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6721"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6721"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6721"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}