In a few short years, locally grown salmon could be on the shelves of grocery stores across eastern Ontario. An aquaculture salmon farm, by agricultural company Samonix, has been proposed for the community of Litchfield, Que., roughly 15 minutes west of Shawville. The estimated $418-million project would be built on 5.6-hectares on land alongside the Ottawa River at 51 chemin Industriel Nord. The salmon farm would be capable of producing an average of 2.8-million salmon per year. “Most of the (salmon) production is based in Norway, and then the second largest producers are in Chile,” says Mathieu Farley, founder and president of Samonix, and a resident of the Outaouais. “So instead of flying fish from 9,000 kilometres or 6,000 kilometres away, we could be producing fish here in the Outaouais.” Farley says North America imports roughly 80 per cent of its salmon consumption, but the salmon grown by Samonix in Litchfield would primarily serve markets in Quebec, Ontario and parts of northeastern United States. “It would allow us to bring Atlantic salmon to markets within 2 or 3 days,” he says. “Right now, I don’t think there’s an Atlantic salmon that gets to a grocery store in less than 7 to 8 days after harvesting.” Quebec’s ministry of environment and Bureau of Public Hearings on the Environment have called for four months of public consultations on the project beginning Aug. 24 and running until Dec. 24. Samonix says it will be pulling water from the Ottawa River to fill tanks. “The average is around 1,800 cubic metres of new water per day. And we’re trying to reduce that because the more we bring in, the more expensive it is to treat it when it comes in and treat it when it comes out.” Farley explains that 99 per cent of the water used in its processes will be recycled, with the last one percent released back into the Ottawa River. “This is the 1 per cent that we may not be able to treat as much, and all the sludge is going into a bio-mechanization plant for renewable bio-gas.” “The water that is coming out of our discharge pipe is the same as the river water when we took it at the intake pipe within something like 80-metres,” adds Farley. The Pontiac’s Warden, Jane Toller, is in support of Samonix’s project and is confident the impact to the Ottawa River and surrounding environment will be minimal. “The Ministry of Environment are so heavily involved in this, if there’s anything that is going to be a negative to the Ottawa River, it’s not going to proceed or that will have to be corrected before they are permitted to operate,” Toller told CTV News Thursday. “The amount of salt that is going to be released into the river is a very minimal amount and is less than what the acceptable level is by the Ministry of Environment.” Toller adds that when the site is first up and running, fish waste and excrement will be taken away by trucks to a processing facility in another part of Quebec. “As warden, I feel that we have to give everything a fair chance and I am satisfied at this point that there will be no environmental concerns,” Toller says. Farley says he is hopeful construction on the farm can begin in 2028 following environmental approvals. He expects the salmon farm will create 100 local jobs, plus jobs associated with construction and new jobs created outside the site, such as trucking. “In 2008, when all of our mills were closed, that had a huge impact on our economy, and unfortunately, many people now have to leave to find their work,” said Toller. “100 jobs would be huge to MRC Pontiac. This could establish us in the Pontiac as a major exporter of salmon.”
