Image: Cooke Inc. Facebook Page
An Atlantic Canadian aquaculture business is looking to fill more than 100 jobs after finding difficulty getting workers due to COVID-19 and the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) offered by the federal government.
“We’ve had a challenging time being able to find and recruit individuals during the pandemic,” said Joel Richardson, Vice President Public Relations for Cooke Aquaculture.
“But Atlantic Canada is fully open now and businesses are open, so we would hope that people would take advantage of all the jobs that are available and go back into the workforce.”
Cooke Aquaculture is a New Brunswick-based company with operations in the U.S., Chile, Scotland, and Spain, as well as all over Atlantic Canada. Their seafood products are branded True North Seafood Company and they ship these products to more than 67 companies.
The available jobs are across Atlantic Canada but the most pressing needs are in New Brunswick in Blacks Harbour and St. George. The positions include seafood processors, vessel crew member, and truck drivers.
Richarson said Cooke Aquaculture offers full-time, year-round jobs starting at $15 dollars with the opportunity for pay growth.
They are accepting people with or without experience. The employees will be trained on the job with pay.
“We’re always on the lookout for more employees as our operations grow and as we harvest salmon and distribute salmon out to grocery retailers,” Richardson said.
“We’re part of the essential food security and food supply chain in Canada.”
Some of the offered benefits with a Cooke Aquaculture job include full medical benefits, RRSPs, and premium and performance bonuses.
“We’re doing a refer-a-friend program for all of our employees,” Richardson said.
“So, anyone that works at Cooke, if they refer a friend that comes and works at our operations in St. George or Blacks Harbour, they have an opportunity to both actually earn cash bonuses if those new hires come and stay with us for a number of months.”
Richardson said age isn’t an issue and some students even work for Cooke while going to school part-time. He said they welcome people who are motivated and want to work.
“As a family company, we treat people very fairly as members of a family and it’s a great work environment,” Richardson said.
“We provide lots of opportunities for people to grow as we grow our operations as well.”
Hannah Rudderham is a reporter at Huddle, an Acadia Broadcasting content partner.
