Representatives from ecoTECH were blown away by the number of skilled and unskilled applicants who attended their job fair in McBride late last month.

“We got something like 140 local job applications and probably 40 from reaches as far as Edmonton,” said ecoTECH CEO Colin Hall. “It was a resounding success.”

Hall said it wasn’t just the number of applications that astounded the company, it was also the quality of the applications.

“It could not have been better in terms of people with skill sets similar to what we need,” he said, noting that there were also a number of unskilled youth who showed a desire to learn.

“There’s a tremendous amount of talent (in McBride) and where there’s not talent, there’s enthusiasm.”

It is anticipated that there will be more than 200 permanent and temporary jobs needed to construct and maintain ecoTECH Engery Group’s proposed aquaculture, horticulture and combined heat and power facility. 

There will be about 140 temporary construction-related positions and another 150 permanent jobs once the facilities are up and running, the company expects.

The basis of the facility is aquaponics – a combination of aquaculture (fish farming) and hydroponics (growing plants in water rather than soil).

In order to make it work, ecoTECH will construct a 430,000-sq.-ft. greenhouse, a 108,000-sq.-ft. cold storage and flash-freezing facility, another 18,000-sq.-ft. vermiculture/fish-food facility, and a 1,000-sq.-ft. structure for filleting and processing fish.

The initial phase also calls for a five-megawatt biomass generating plant to power the facilities, which are designed to provide a sustainable, local source of food – both produce and fish.

Hall said construction of the greenhouse and generating plant depends on the weather, “Not whether we’ll do it, but the weather,” he joked. Construction is set to begin as soon as the snow melts in the spring.

That doesn’t mean that the work will stop this winter, though. 

“During the winter we’re going to be putting together a building for getting all of our primary stocks ready,” he said, referring to the aquaculture and horticulture seed stocks.

Hall said everything is on track for success. The land, located seven kilometres northwest of McBride, was purchased in the spring. The village has ratified the zoning on the site, allowing the company to proceed, and a water source has been finalized.

“It’s the real deal,” he said. “We’re pretty happy right now.”