Northern Wild Fishery shut down all their operations on Wednesday. (Nigel Maxwell/ paNOW Staff)

By Nigel Maxwell

Northern issues

Wollaston Lake Fishery shuts down operations, owners blame lack of all weather road

Jul 12, 2019 | 11:44 AM

The closure of Wollaston Lake Fishery’s operations in Prince Albert and Wollaston Lake this week, has direct ties to a broken promise by the federal and provincial governments to build an all weather road, according to the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Hatchet Lake Development Limited Partnership.

Anne Robillard told paNOW the closures of the processing plants and retail store have been deeply felt by those in the communities of Hatchet Lake and Wollaston Lake, but added with no road to connect Wollaston Lake to the rest of the province, their costs just became too high.

“Living in a remote community and we have to cross the lake, 40 plus kilometers, the cost is a huge impact,” she said.

The fishery in Wollaston Lake, certified by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, was launched in 2015, and the retail store in Prince Albert was opened the following year. Fish caught lakeside was shipped to Prince Albert, and then onto other market destinations across the province and the country. Robillard said at the time they opened, they had been promised an all weather road. Work on the 102 kilometre all weather road has been stalled since 2011 due to budget constraints.

“It’s really sad that something we carried on for so long, we couldn’t carry on anymore because of the transportation and the high cost. It’s not like we are not capable of doing the work,” Robillard said.

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A total of 25 jobs will be lost as the direct result of the closure of the two processing plants and retail store. Fortunately there is a processing plant in Île-à-la-Crosse and they have agreed to pick up the contract Northern Wild Fishery had with Federated Co-Op. Robillard said when news broke in their community about the closures, there were a lot people concerned about their livelihood.

“One particular fisherman said when he heard we were shutting down, ‘What am I going to do now, that was my only source of income to feed my family’ and this is a young man that said that,” she said.

Robillard says the processing plants will remain ‘asleep’ until the all weather road is built. Hatchet Lake Chief Bart Tsannie told paNOW leadership will continue to work hard to find places where local fishermen can sell their fish, adding there’s a lot of uncertainty in the community right now.

“We were told [the governments] were going to fund for a road but it didn’t happen, and it’s very frustrating,” he said.

The estimated cost of the all weather road is roughly $1 million per kilometer constructed, or a total of $88 million. As per a previous paNOW article, provincial government officials mentioned at a Saskatchewan Chamber of Commerce event last year, they prepared a package to send to the federal government, asking for funding for an all-weather road to Wollaston Lake.

Editor’s Note: This story has been updated to reflect to the business, Wollaston Lake Fishery, has closed. The brand, Northern Wild fishery, remains in operation.

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nigel.maxwell@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @nigelmaxwell