Over the past few days, several Chéticamp residents have expressed suspicion about Councillor Alfred Poirier’s position on the opening of the local crab processing plant. Following reports of COVID-19 infections at food processing plants across the country, several Chéticamp residents and the Gulf Nova Scotia Fishermen’s Coalition have been pushing for the Chéticamp Fisheries plant not to open this season. The Coalition reportedly asked Councillor Poirier to produce a letter showing his support, which he delivered, only to withdraw it later. 

In an interview with CHNE, Poirier said that he withdrew the letter because he wanted to promote it himself instead of through the association, but that his position had not changed: he was concerned about the risks the plant could bring to the community. He also said that as a municipal councillor, he didn’t have much power over what would happen with the plant. “If the fishery goes in,” he said, “If everybody is being told to go out and process the fish, that’s the way it will be. That’s a thing that we don’t have any control over. Unless… there is one person that we have to talk to, that we have to wake up, appoint to, and it is the Minister of Fisheries and that would be Bernadette Jordan. You know, we’re very limited how we can cope with the problem that we have.”

Following the initial outcry on social media, Poirier asked the community not to write to him on Facebook, but to call him or email him privately. “Words hurt,” he said, “and like anybody else, it hurts me, it hurts my family and we don’t want to go there. And because we’re in a crisis. … We’re doing this now, but in 2 weeks, 3 weeks, 4 weeks, 5 weeks, 6 weeks down the road, things will not be any better because I’m going to be under a lot of pressure and everybody else is going to be under a lot of pressure. But I’ll say don’t put the blame on everybody else. Look at yourself in the mirror and say, what can I do for Chéticamp and the people and everywhere else in the county?”