Tariff threat forces Grieg Newfoundland postponement

Now, Grant Cumming, Grieg Seafood’s Chief Operating Officer for North America, has said that the project is on hold altogether.

"There’s still quite a lot of work to complete the post-smolt facility. We’re, I guess, around about halfway through the job. And we still plan on completing it," he told CBC Radio.

“With the political uncertainty we’re facing just now, and the fact that we haven’t yet found a partner to help us with our investment plans in Canada, it means that we are postponing it."

The facility would have allowed Grieg to expand operations in Placentia Bay, allowing more young salmon to be grown and kept on land for a longer period of time.

Cumming said the company doesn’t expect layoffs among the current 111 local employees, which had been an earlier fear among the staff.

Despite immense municipal and provincial support in Newfoundland and Labrador, Cumming said, a commitment to ban open-net pen aquaculture in British Columbia by 2029 and economic threats from US President Donald Trump have shareholders making second guesses. He has stressed that the decision is not a cancellation, but only a postponement.