By Jonathan Riley
TRANSCONTINENTAL MEDIA
NovaNewsNow.com
Comeau Seafoods will be honoured this September for their contribution to the Acadian community.
The Conseil de développement économique de la Nouvelle-Écosse (CDENS or council for economic development in Nova Scotia) chose the Saulnierville company to receive a lifetime achievement award at the Celebrating Communities conference coming up in Yarmouth at the end of September.
The Nova Scotia Department of Economic Development holds the conference every two years and this year CDENS is hosting under the theme “Acadian inspiration.”
Marcel Comeau, president of Comeau Seafoods, first heard about the award Aug. 10 during filming for a video to be played at the conference. He was under the impression they had just been nominated for the award.
“I have some big news for you,” said Ross MacDonald of Economic Development from behind the camera. “The Acadian community has chosen you to receive the award.”
“C’est fantastique,” whispered Comeau, obviously taken aback.
Marcel’s father Bernardin J. Comeau and his uncle Clarence started the company in 1946. They normally fished lobster from November to May and then got into the herring fishery as something to do in the summer months.
Marcel started working at the company for his father when he was nine, packing small wooden boxes of herring for the Caribbean market. He got a penny box and tried to do 50 a day.
Today the company has its own fleet of four scallop draggers and three herring seiners and it employs 350 people at five fish plants from Clare to the Pubnicos. The company ships scallops, herring, herring meal and oil to retail, food service and industrial customers all over the world.
The company also produces value-added products such as smoked salmon, smoked mackerel, salt fish, breaded scallops, seafood spreads, seafood chowders and ready-to-eat items. The company also runs a machine and welding shop, a dry dock in Meteghan, and their own testing and quality control laboratory.
More relevant to this award, though, is the company’s involvement in the Acadian community. MacDonald asked Comeau to talk about that for the video.
“My father and uncle started this company to maintain local employment year round,” said Comeau. “We’re right here in the middle of l’Acadie and we are proud to be Acadian. That’s why our boats have the Acadian flag on it.
“We’ve always been involved in the community whether supporting the hospital, the church, the university or the Acadian Festival.”
Comeau also talked about the importance of knowing the people who work for them by their first names.
“If we don’t know everyone who works here I’m sure I know their father, their mother or their cousin,” said Comeau. “There’s a warmth to working here, a real sense of working in a team – it’s incredibly rewarding to live that every day.”
The Celebrating Communities conference runs from Sept. 28 to 30 in Yarmouth with the goal of “celebrating Nova Scotians who drive community economic growth and prosperity.”
MacDonald says the conference gives business people the opportunity to network and to share best practices.
“But it also provides the opportunity to recognize people who are taking on the hard task of pushing our economy forward, creating jobs and employment through innovative, community-led solutions,” he said.
Congradulation to to Comeau Seafoods.. an award well deserved and also still a large firm proud to be Acadian