Tag Archives: Clearwater Foods
Nunavut Inuit suing feds over fishing license allocations to Mi’kmaw company
In a lawsuit filed earlier this month, Nunavut Tunngavik Incorporated and the Qikiqtani Inuit Association asked the federal court to quash a decision by Canada’s Minister of Fisheries and Oceans to transfer the licences for Greenland halibut and shrimp from seafood company Clearwater Foods to the coalition, after the Mi’kmaw group partnered to buy the company in January. Reached by phone on Wednesday, Jordan, through her staff, declined to comment following her loss in Monday’s federal election. The lawsuit describes how Nunavut fishers have only held about 50 per 
cent of total fishing quotas for all species off Nunavut’s coast, which Inuit argue is disproportionately low compared to the 90 per cent that fisheries in Atlantic provinces have off their own coasts, an acknowledgement the federal government and DFO have made on several occasions. >click to read< 09:28
“This is a transformational moment” – Mi’kmaq lead billion-dollar sea change
One of the key differences between the Clearwater deal and the Mi’kmaq moderate-livelihood fishery is that Clearwater held commercial offshore licences, allowing them to fish lobster year-round, while moderate livelihood contends with treaty rights and typically means inshore lobster fishing (within 50 nautical miles from shore). Offshore fishing requires larger boats, more intense training and safety protocols. Last summer, Membertou First Nation purchased two of the offshore licences, and Paul promised then that they would continue to gain access to more seafood markets. Buying out Clearwater, which sold more than $600 million in scallops, clams, rock crab, shrimp and lobster on the global market in 2019, has made the coalition the largest holder of shellfish licences and quotas in Canada. >click to read< 09:38
Links between minister’s wife and surf clam deal lead to renewed calls for ethics probe
The ethics commissioner has rebuffed a request from a Conservative MP to investigate Fisheries Minister Dominic LeBlanc’s decision to award a license for the Arctic surf clam fishery to a group with federal Liberal ties. But Conservatives are now asking Mario Dion to take a second look at the deal — because they say they now have evidence that a member of LeBlanc’s wife’s family had a financial stake in the winning bid. The Conservatives claim that link may have influenced LeBlanc’s decision — an suggestion the minister calls “ludicrous.” >click to read<09:58
