Seafood buyers, processors want Halifax airport facility expanded

People who enjoy seafood want it fresh whether theylive in Seabright or Shanghai, which is why a group that represents seafood buyers and processors urged provincialpoliticians Thursday to lobby for the expansion of the cargo facility at the Halifax StanfieldInternational Airport.

"If you're talking about a live product, it has to go on an airplane," Leo Muise, executive director of theNova Scotia Seafood Alliance, told a legislature committee.

Muisesaid the facility at the airport cannot handle the amount of livelobster that needs to be shipped during peak demand periods such as Christmas and Chinese New Year.

"It's probably an opportunity lost more than it is a frustration," said Muise.

On its website, Gateway, which has cargo facilities at the airport,boasts about havinga 7,000-square-foot refrigerated warehouseit claims is "the largest facility of its kind north of Miami."

'Every minute counts'

That's big, but not big enough, according to Muise,who told the all-party committee that some of his group's 66 member companies have had to find other ways to get their shipments to Asian markets.

"There's just not enough capacity to move the amount of product that has to be moved on any individual day and the result is that product is then trucked to other airports like Logan, like New York, like Toronto to be put in airplanes there," he said.

OsborneBurke, who runsVictoria Co-operative Fisheries out of Neils Harbour, echoed that sentiment.

"The Gateway in Halifax does what they can with what flights they have, but a significant portion of lobsters that come in there are reloaded on trucks to Toronto and Montrealand down the highway and into Boston to be airfreighted," said Burke.

He told the politicians that having Nova Scotia lobster shipped from Boston is counterproductive to the province's efforts to market our homegrown industry.

"Hence our continual challenge in Asia to make them understand that Boston lobster doesn't really come from Boston. It's Nova Scotialobster that was driven down to Boston and put on a flight," said Burke.

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That problem is compounded right now by the fact the ferry from Digby to Saint John, N.B., is undergoing needed repairs so there's no service until the end of March.

According to Muise,that ferry routeis"critical."

"It saves about six hours of driving time. With a live productthat's going to New York or Boston, every minutecounts," he told the committee.

Airport authority wants a logistics park

Carole Rankin, a spokesperson for the Halifax International Airport Authority, saidthere are capacity challenges during certain times of the year, but it's limited to certain days of the week during peak season, specifically December through to the Chinese New Year.

Rankin said that in 2017, $220 millionin seafood exports were shipped from the airport.

She said the airport authority is working to increase its capacity forprocessing cargo. Last year, the airport authority submitted an application for funding from a Transport Canada program for the creation of a logistics park "to connect commercial and logistics businesses in Atlantic Canada to air cargo opportunities spanning the globe," Rankin said in an email.

The plan for the 25-acre site would include a cargo handling building and another one to be built later, an "apron" large enough to accommodate up to four air cargo freighters simultaneously, loading areas and a de-icing facility.

"In our current situation we do have capacity to do more, however, the challenge lies in scheduling. We appreciate our partners drawing attention to a growing opportunity at Halifax Stanfield," said Rankin.

Climate change study needed

The Nova Scotia Seafood Alliance would also like to see the province fund a study of the effects of climate change on their industry.

Muise, a self-described climate change skeptic-turned-believer, said government focus to date has been on land, not water.

"The Federation of Agriculture was given a million dollars in December to study the effects of climate change on dike landsand things of that nature and we were given nada," he said. "For God's sake, I think we've had two hurricanes since Christmas only we don't call themhurricanes in the wintertime, we just call them nor'easters."

Beyond those major issues, Kerry Cunningham, manager ofSea Star Seafoods, wanted something a little less tangible.

"I wish we ...were appreciated," he told the committee at the end of the group's presentation. "If we got the appreciation of what we do, or the love, if you call it that, that Iceland and Norway gives to their fishing industry instead of saying we're the bad guys.