Tag Archives: DFO’s owner-operator policy
Rules around fishing licences, cabinet ministers ‘frustrating’ for PC MLA
PC MLA Sidney MacEwen said he watched nine of his colleagues sworn in as cabinet ministers in Georgetown yesterday with mixed emotions. MacEwen believes he and fellow PC MLA Colin LaVie faced an unfair — though perhaps not insurmountable — obstacle barring their way from cabinet: the two are fishermen. P.E.I.’s Conflict of Interest Act requires cabinet ministers put their business holdings in a blind trust. MacEwen said he spoke to P.E.I.’s conflict of interest commissioner and was told he would be in compliance if he put the corporation under which he owns his lobster licence into a blind trust. The problem, MacEwen said, is with DFO’s owner-operator policy, which dictates the person who owns a fishing licence has to be the one who fishes under it. >click to read<12:13
DFO cracks down on secret fishing licence deals
Canada’s Department of Fisheries and Oceans says it’s cracking down on so-called “controlling agreements” that result in fishermen holding a fishing licence in name only. Morley Knight, the department’s manager for the Maritimes, said five licence-compliance reviews have been completed in the region and other cases are ongoing. Controlling agreements allow individuals or corporations other than the licence holder to secretly control the use of the licence. They allow companies to get around DFO’s owner-operator policy, which is meant to ensure the independence of Atlantic Canada’s inshore fishery. Read the rest here 08:11
