Media release: The candidates speak. Where do they stand on open-net fish farms?

All four Chester-St. Margaret’s MLA candidates invited 

Wednesday, July 21^st 2PM 

Blandford Community Centre 

Blandford, NS 

To meet a regulatory requirement to consult the community, many years after they already quadrupled  the size of their Bayswater fish farm lease, on July 21 from 1-8pm at the Blandford Community Centre  Cooke Aquaculture is holding an “open house.” They will be selling residents retroactively on a lease  expansion they already accomplished and have been profiting from for years. Citing Covid rules which  do not exist, they are restricting the number of visitors to the so- called “open house” to 15 people in 45  minute increments. They are redefining the term “open house.”  

In response, the all-volunteer Twin Bays Coalition (St. Margaret’s and Mahone Bays) and the  provincewide Healthy Bays Network are inviting the public and the media to join us for a truly “open” discussion outside the Centre at 2pm. Speakers will be the four declared candidates currently running to  represent the provincial riding of Chester-St. Margaret’s in the next provincial legislature. They will  declare and defend their positions regarding open-net pens in Nova Scotia’s coastal waters.  

The candidates are: 

• Jessica Alexander, Greens (confirmed) 

• Danielle Barkhouse, Progressive Conservatives (confirmed) 

• Jacob Killawee, Liberals 

• Amy Reitsma, New Democrats (confirmed)