A sign of the Prince Rupert Fishing Times ... Canadian Fishing Company puts Main Plant out for Leasing

A bit of Prince Rupert history is among the leasing listings this month, with the Canadian Fishing Company Plant on the city's east side officially taking enquiries towards leasing opportunities. 

At one time it was one of the key engines of the Prince Rupert and North Coast economy with volumes of fish and workers passing through its doors on a seasonal basis. 

A place for bountiful fishings seasons when everyone who wanted a job could find one at the cannery and more than few of those that went bust, when the hours barely qualified a worker for UI.

The plant booming in times of full employment, along with the focal point for some famed labour disputes that churned the community over the decades.

Payday Friday's in Prince Rupert were once the thing of long line ups at the Credit Union and the banks as fish plant workers and fishermen put their two weeks worth of earnings towards homes, cars and many other goods. 

An injection of cash that was once spread out along the then many stores of Third Avenue West, building commercial empires of their own, that now like the fishery have long since faded from the downtown core.

Those heady days of just a few decades ago, are now but a historical footnote.  A past chapter in the ever evolving history of Prince Rupert.

The troubles of the salmon ecosystem, management of the resource by government and changes in corporate vision all coming together at the same time, leading to restructuring and a very different footprint for the industry in Prince Rupert.

And to hammer that point home, comes the visual of the For Lease sign on the gate of the Main Canadian Fish Plant at the foot of Drydock Road and George Hills Way which tells the story quite well. 

Controlled by the Jim Pattison Group since the 1990's, that after BC Packers left the community. The giant cavern of fish processing space hasn't been a strong contributor to the local economy since the turn of the century.

The final sign of the end for the fish processing business, was the removal of the canning lines in the last decade, which turned the Main plant into mostly a transit stop for fish. 

The resources of the North Coast, Haida Gwaii and beyond taken  from the fleet and packers, a bounty that was once processed in Prince Rupert, now a commodity bound for the freezers of the lower mainland.

With Canfisco now consolidating all of its work at their Seal Cove Facility the main plant is redundant as they say in industry. Mr. Pattison's fishing arm offering up from 2,500 to 30,000 Square Feet for any and all who may be interested.

What may be ahead for the facility and if it still has a place in the North Coast economy still to be known, that as the bids come in for the large industrial footprint on the Prince Rupert waterfront.

More notes on the North Coast fishing industry can be reviewed here.