Follow-up Questions

Antigonish Oyster Community Liaison Committee (CLC) hosted a public meeting on August 23rd. Community groups were invited to submit presentations for the CLC’s review prior to the meeting. To the best of our knowledge, FOAH was the only community group to submit a presentation.

FOAH appreciated the CLC’s offer to make a presentation and to ask questions of the other two presenters, Mr. Porter of TPCI and Dr. David Garbary, a member of the CLC.

The format used for the Q&A period did not permit follow-up questions. As a consequence we wrote to the chairman of the CLC on September 8 asking follow-up questions. You can see this correspondence here: CLC Follow-up Questions , Here are a few of the follow-up questions we asked:

  • Would Mr. Porter share an explanation of how TPCI expects to create 11 jobs with its oyster farm while NS Government employment data indicates other shellfish aquaculture ventures in the province operate on average with far fewer employees for a comparable sized operation? Isn’t TPCI’s technology meant to improve productivity and reduce labour?

  • Can Mr. Porter please explain how much money is available from “the bond program” to clean up the 23,000 oyster floats, 52km of ropes and misc other gear that may end up littering Antigonish Harbour and St George’s Bay in the event of severe weather? How long would it take TPCI and its small recreational motor boat to recover its gear?

  • Wouldn’t the common understanding of the words “width of the harbour at this point” (referring to the spot at Town Point where the TPCI’s pipes enter the harbour), mean the nearest shore on the other side of the harbour (i.e., 400 m away)? TPCI’s oyster nursery application indicates the width as 1km.

  • Could Dr. Garbary share the timing, methodology and any reports used to come to the conclusion that there is no eel grass under the lease sites?

  • Will Mr. Porter comply with his promise not to infringe filed personal navigational channels so as to ensure residents and other sailors have safe access between Graham’s Cove and Archibald’s Point and the main channel in Antigonish Harbour?

  • Could Mr. Porter provide a copy of the report prepared by the DFO’s Dr. Jeffrey Barrell, which Mr. Porter references frequently, to the public?

As of September 26th we are still looking forward to receiving responses to these questions.

FOAH