ST. GEORGE, New Brunswick – New Brunswick’s beleaguered salmon farming industry, devastated by a recent disease outbreak, is getting up to $20 million in aid from the federal government.

Andy Scott, New Brunswick’s representative in the federal cabinet, made the announcement Tuesday in St. George, a town on the western edge of the Bay of Fundy, the bay where virtually all of the province’s aquaculture operations are based.

Many of the salmon farms, which employ about 4,800 people, were forced to destroy their stocks a few years ago because of an outbreak of infectious salmon anemia. Uncompensated losses amounted to about $24 million.

“No other sector of Canada’s aquaculture industry, in any province, has had to absorb such losses due to ordered eradication of stock,” said Scott. “This one-time funding will help the industry deal with this challenge in the short term.”

Scott’s announcement was welcomed by Len Stewart, president of the New Brunswick Salmon Growers Association.

“The industry is delighted with this announcement, which will stabilize our salmon industry here,” he said.

Scott said delivery of the federal money is conditional on Ottawa reaching an agreement with the New Brunswick government. Nobody from the provincial Conservative government was at Tuesday’s news conference.

“We’re confident the bilateral agreement will happen,” said Scott. “We just wanted to get it going, and I think this just adds a little energy to things.”

David Alward, New Brunswick’s aquaculture minister, said there has been no discussions about a bilateral agreement.

“This is not a federal-provincial agreement,” he said. “This is federal money that is going directly to the industry and they need to get it out as quickly as possible.”

He said the province already is providing loans, loan guarantees and money for research and development.

Ian Hamilton, president of Aqua Fish Farms, said the new money – once it is delivered – will help stabilize companies trying to recover from losses over the last few years.

“We can now actually look at the sustainability plan which will take us to a market-driven business rather than a production-driven industry,” he said.

In 1991, Atlantic Canadian salmon farms produced 9,600 tons of fish. By 2002, that figure had grown to 42,000 tons.

In 2004, the regional industry reported annual sales of $213 million.