Security at the Port Mersey Commercial Park in Queens is no longer.
For the past two years, ten locals worked to keep the facility secure and now, all ten are out of work after the security contracts were cancelled.
Speaking for Nova Scotia Lands, Marla MacInnis, Media Relations Advisor for Transportation and Infrastructure Renewal Service Nova Scotia, says current tenants of the park all had their own security measures in place.
“We started that contract when we were doing demolition work and we continued that as the site sort of progressed and now that it’s sort of filling up with different tenants, we just didn’t have the same need for their services anymore,” says MacInnis.
There were two separate security contracts with Commissionaires NS; Nova Scotia Lands oversaw the security for the front gate while R.J. MacIsaac oversaw security at the other site within the park.
Local resident Kim Handspiker says her husband is one of the ten now out of work. She says the Main Gate Security Guards were given 30 days notice, while the others were given just 5 days notice.
She says the impact has been huge on her family.
“Very huge. We bought here two and a half years ago and bought a house that we knew we would have to be doing work to so what he’s been earning by working, has been paying for renovations and updates to the home and we’ve had to go out now and cancel,” says Handspiker.
She says it all happened rather quickly and came as a surprise.
“Thirty days (notice) for the front gate and only five days for the other site; it wasn’t much time in order to try and turn around and get your ducks in a row and find out what you’re going to do,” adds Handspiker.
In an email to Acadia News, current tenant R.J. MacIsaac says their contracts with the Department of National Defence have ended and they no longer require security, while a spokesperson for Nova Scotia Lands says most tenants provide their own security.
By: Craig Power
@CraigTPower