Cooke Aquaculture to create 100 new jobs

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COOKE Aquaculture is to create up to 100 new jobs in the Canadian province of New Brunswick with support from the provincial government.
New Brunswick premier Brian Gallant said: ‘Cooke Aquaculture is a great example of how New Brunswick’s workforce and know-how can help businesses grow.
‘Your government’s multi-year economic growth plan is focused on investing to help New Brunswick-based businesses to compete in markets around the world.’
The company, which also has several sites in Orkney and Shetland, as well as freshwater operations on the Scottish mainland, currently has more than 1,300 employees at various locations in the province.
The new jobs are expected to be marine site workers, technicians and managers, logistics experts and truck drivers.
Twenty-five of the new positions will be created at the company’s office in Saint John, while the remaining 75 will be spread across Cooke Aquaculture’s head office in Blacks Harbour, and at operations in St George and Grand Manan.
Company CEO Glen Cooke said: ‘It is a tribute to the success of our recent acquisitions that we are able to continue to create new jobs here in New Brunswick.
‘These new employees are needed to help us reach our latest growth targets and we are very pleased to be able to add so many of them as part of our operations in rural New Brunswick.’
To support the creation of these new jobs, Cooke Aquaculture is eligible for an investment of up to $1.9 million from Opportunities NB, which is a Crown corporation that provides support services for businesses across the province.
Up to $990,000 of this funding comes in the form of payroll rebates, which are performance based and only disbursed to a company once it has created and maintained the jobs for one year and provided proof of salary levels and employment.
It is estimated that creating up to 100 jobs would contribute $25 million in additional payroll over five years and $80 million towards the province’s GDP over that same period.

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