Possibilities.

It has long been a puzzle to many why more has not been done on the North Coast to develop local business, be it private, Co-Op or government run.


There seems to be no shortage of people hired by Government working in the area of community/business development, Then perhaps that is job creation in itself.

Surely there is an opportunity to develop secondary processing [value added] for some species. This little story out of Rankin Inlet shows that remote communities, with the right plan and some vision, can produce products that market well in the south, not to mention the untapped local market.

The Torngat Fish Producers Co-Op did an experimental bacon wrapped scallop a couple of years ago. I did not think it would work for the sole reason that the end product looked too industrial, for want of a better word. It needed refining and then I think it could have worked.

By the by, those heady days of 24 hour shifts in Nain are gone by by.

Then years back the LIDC had the caribou plant in operation, besides the plant being condemned after a few years, due to it being built on very dodgy ground, I think with hard work and good marketing it would have worked. The work it offered the local community is more in line with the culture and history, more so than mining non renewables that’s for sure.

Why not packets of Pitsik [dried fish], kauk [frozen], nikkuk [dried meat], Jerky style. The stores here sell loads of jerky that is made some place outside, maybe China for all I know.

Those little pieces of frozen fish could be marketed locally and outside.

At the moment all the product is shipped out without any secondary processing. The smoked char is sent out in sides, scallop in bulk, and nothing has been done in the caribou line for years. You can buy the product at the fish plant office, and at the Co-Op office in Goose Bay, it is popular so why is there not more work being done in marketing and product development one has to wonder.