October 24, 2008

Minister Cansfield Reopens the Dorion Fish Culture Station

Minister Cansfield officially reopened the newly modernized and expanded Dorion Fish Culture Station on October 24.

Station staff joined in to cut the yellow ribbon to officially mark the station’s opening. They were joined by Minister Cansfield; Thunder Bay MPP Michael Gravelle; Sohail Siddiqui, Station Manager; Scott Watson, Fish Culture Coordinator, Operations-Fish Culture Section; Reeve Linda Tolmonen, Township of Dorion; Councillor Ed Chambers, Township of Dorion; Betty Chambers of Dorion; and, Allan Willcocks, MNR Regional Director. Eric Boysen, Director, Great Lakes Branch and Quentin Day, Manager, Fish Culture Section, invited community members and staff to the reopening event.

“As a Minister, I have the sincere pleasure of coming and cutting the ribbon and… I love it because it gives me the chance to showcase and highlight the things that are happening in my Ministry that are the result of the work of the people in the Ministry,” said Minister Cansfield. 

“This is a fantastic staff…who have been going through the transition over the past two years,” said Assistant Deputy Minister Kevin Wilson. “What this facility gives us is just a tremendous work location for staff to thrive in and for us to achieve biodiversity objectives on behalf of the province, to ensure we are here protecting and advancing the interest of the restoration of species….It’s a tremendous day of success for staff working at the Ministry.”

The MNR operates nine provincial fish culture stations which produce approximately 8 million fish for stocking in public waters each year. About half of these fish are used to rehabilitate degraded fisheries and approximately half are intended to provide additional fishing opportunities through put-grow-and-take stocking.  The station helps to sustain native fish species in the Great Lakes. Originally opened in 1932, it is home to provincially important stocks of fish used for breeding purposes, including lake trout for the Great Lakes, and can supply up to 1.4 million yearlings for fish stocking and rehabilitating degraded fisheries.

“We’re not only able to restock the fish in northwestern Ontario here, but we’re actually able to help southern Ontario as well,” said Minister Cansfield. “This is really what the MNR is all about---there is no northern, southern, eastern or western Ontario, there’s just the MNR doing good things for all of the people of Ontario.”

Minister Cansfield looks on at fish in one of the new station's tubs.	Scott Watson, Fish Culture Coordinator, Operations-Fish Culture Section, leads a tour of the new facility's grounds.
The tour checks out a machine which electronically sorts viable fish eggs.	Hatchery Technician Phyllis Savioja and Minister Cansfield sort viable fish eggs by hand at the reopening of the newly modernized and expanded Dorion Fish Culture Station.