Tag Archives: Trudeau government
Trudeau Government Continues to Mismanage the Fishing Industry While Fish Harvesters and the Processing Industry Lose Opportunity
Conservative Shadow Minister for Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard, Clifford Small, released the following statement after the Trudeau government refused to increase quotas for Northern Cod and the Atlantic Mackerel moratorium continues: “Trudeau’s Fisheries Minister, Joyce Murray, has once again ignored fishing industry stakeholders and harvesters by refusing to modestly increase fish quotas. A full survey assessment of fish stocks in Newfoundland has not been completed since 2019 and now because the Liberals failed to live up to their multiple promises to the industry, working people who make their living in the fishing industry will suffer. “The Trudeau government has failed to live up to its commitments on fisheries science and they are punishing working people without a second thought as a result. >click to continue< 16:42
The Federal Competition Act
Seaward Enterprises Association of Newfoundland and Labrador (SEA-NL) is calling on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to include fish pricing in the Federal Competition Act with planned amendments to the legislation. “The only industry in Canada excluded from the Federal Competition Act is the Newfoundland and Labrador fishery, and the inshore fleet pays the price in terms of less money for their fish,” says Ryan Cleary, Executive Director of SEA-NL. In the federal budget released earlier this month, the Trudeau government revealed plans to make amendments to toughen Canadian competition laws. >click to read< 15:42
Trudeau government rejects lobster quota system for commercial inshore fleet
Fisheries and Oceans Minister Bernadette Jordan issued a statement Friday after meeting with commercial fishermen the day before. “As confirmed in that meeting, there is no plan to move to a quota system for the commercial lobster fishery and it is not being considered,” Jordan said. For decades, conservation in the billion-dollar commercial lobster fishery has been maintained by limiting the number of licence holders and traps. Stocks throughout Nova Scotia lobster fishing areas are healthy. Three Mikmaw parliamentarians have proposed the creation of an optional Atlantic First Nations fisheries authority to administer an Indigenous fishery. >click to read< 19:13
Mi’kmaq planning their own moderate livelihood fishery outside DFO seasons
Canada’s Minister of Fisheries and Oceans is downplaying plans by Nova Scotia Mi’kmaq to create their own moderate livelihood fishery, characterizing the move as part of ongoing negotiations to implement a 21-year-old Supreme Court ruling. “Right now we are working with the First Nations communities to determine what a moderate livelihood fishery looks like. We’re continuing to have those meetings with them,”,, The Trudeau government has managed to get moderate livelihood deals with three bands; one in Quebec and two in New Brunswick. >click to read< 10:55
Discontent arrives at federal fisheries minister’s doorstep
Roger LeBlanc, on Thursday sporting a Maritime Fisherman’s Union cap and a jacket bearing the name of Beausoleil the Third, his 50-foot lobster boat ,is used to rising early. So, it was nothing for him to leave Meteghan at 6:30 a.m. to make the two-hour drive to Bridgewater. He didn’t want to miss the big rally in front of the office of Bernadette Jordan,,, . There was a time when LeBlanc hoped his grandson, Joseph, who is eight, could follow in the family business. Now he’s not so sure. “I’m here today,” he told me, “because I don’t see a future in our fishery.” >click to read< 08:11
Peaceful Protest: Hundreds of fishermen protest outside Fisheries and Oceans Minister Jordan’s office – Several hundred fishermen protested Thursday in Bridgewater, N.S., outside the constituency office of Fisheries and Oceans Minister Bernadette Jordan, demanding her department stop out-of-season commercial lobster harvesting and sales commercial lobster harvesting and sales by First Nations in Nova Scotia. >click to read<
Peaceful Protest: Hundreds of fishermen protest outside Fisheries and Oceans Minister Jordan’s office
Several hundred fishermen protested Thursday in Bridgewater, N.S., outside the constituency office of Fisheries and Oceans Minister Bernadette Jordan, demanding her department stop out-of-season commercial lobster harvesting and sales commercial lobster harvesting and sales by First Nations in Nova Scotia. “We are tired of being ignored over and over again,” organizer Colin Sproul of the Bay of Fundy Inshore Fishermen’s Association told the crowd through a bullhorn from the back of a pickup truck. The protest is over what fishermen say is a blatant abuse of a First Nations communal lobster fishery underway in St. Marys Bay. >click to read< 17:06
Discontent arrives at federal fisheries minister’s doorstep – Roger LeBlanc, on Thursday sporting a Maritime Fisherman’s Union cap and a jacket bearing the name of Beausoleil the Third, his 50-foot lobster boat ,is used to rising early. He didn’t want to miss the big rally in front of the office of Bernadette Jordan,,, >click to read<
MP Rachel Blaney: Trudeau government breaks promise to remove fish farms by 2025
She says they’re backpedalling on an election promise to remove British Columbia’s open net salmon farms in five years’ time. “Sadly, it doesn’t surprise me,” Blaney says. “I think about how many promises they’ve made to our region and not followed through and this seems like another one.” This is a trend she’s noticed again and again. “They say one thing and then they do another and people are left not knowing.,, DFO is still playing a dual role as “the protector of wild salmon,, “But, they’re also supposed to promote fish farming. >click to read< 11:32
A seafood empire and a court battle over Trudeau’s push for Indigenous reconciliation
One of the Trudeau government’s signature acts of Indigenous reconciliation is being challenged in court, exposing the fierce competition between First Nations for a shellfish quota worth millions — and the jockeying by one of Canada’s leading seafood companies to keep control of the fishery. Hundreds of pages of records filed in Federal Court offer new insight into the controversial decision in February to award 25 per cent of Canada’s Arctic surf clam quota to Five Nations Clam Company, led by Elsipogtog First Nation of New Brunswick and its industry partner Premium Seafoods of Arichat, N.S. >click to read<09:43
‘Concern and confusion’: Premier slams logic behind marine protected area choices
Premier Stephen McNeil personally warned a federal panel on marine protected areas on Friday its decisions could have dire consequences for Nova Scotians who make their living from the North Atlantic Ocean. Banning fishing and other activities in protected areas has a huge impact on communities, particularly those along the province’s Eastern Shore, he told the National Advisory Panel on Marine Protected Area Standards in Moncton.,, “To date, we are not seeing decisions based on science, research or fact,” he told the group during his eight-minute prepared speech. >click to read<12:02
Trudeau government turns to senior Liberals, Indigenous on rules for MPA’s
The Trudeau government has named an advisory panel to navigate the stormy issue of what activities will and will not be allowed inside coastal waters and ocean designated as marine protected areas. Canada has promised to “protect” 10 per cent of marine waters by 2020, but what that means in terms of restrictions on fishing and other commercial activity has not been established. “We’re not there yet,” said Rémi Bujold, who co-chairs a seven-member advisory panel named Friday by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans. No one from the fishing industry is on the panel. >click to read< 07:46
Skeptical fishermen briefed on proposed Eastern Shore MPA, ‘could take us out of our livelihood,’
Nova Scotia’s lobster season opens on the Eastern Shore in days, but dozens of fishermen stopped prepping for it Thursday to learn about a massive marine protected area proposed for their fishing grounds. The Eastern Shore Islands, as it’s being called, has been declared an area of interest for conservation by the Trudeau government. It would be the first marine protected area along the Atlantic coast of Nova Scotia and includes inshore and coastal waters. It would protect hundreds of islands that create an archipelago running from Clam Harbour to Liscomb. >click to read< 16:37
FISH-NL questions whether Ottawa purposely is out to eliminate inshore fishery and outports along with it
The Federation of Independent Sea Harvesters of Newfoundland and Labrador (FISH-NL) says Ottawa’s decision to award a new Arctic surf clam licence to East Coast aboriginal groups amounts to Indigenous reconciliation on the backs of inshore harvesters and rural communities.,, “Our inshore harvesters and rural communities should be at the head of the line for any new quotas,” says Ryan Cleary, President of FISH-NL. “Our harvesters are starving for fish, and the feds are taking from the few healthy stocks we have left, and carving them up for groups with no connection to the resource. That’s just wrong.” >click to read< 12:07
Fisheries Act sea change aims for conservation, clarity but Bill C-68 includes plenty of work for regulatory lawyers
Proposed Fisheries Act amendments will roll back industry-driven reforms from 2012 that were condemned by marine scientists, restore the broad protection of fish and fish habitat sought by environmentalists, enhance Indigenous powers over fisheries and add more regulatory teeth and tools to enforce the law. Bill C-68 introduced by the Trudeau government Feb. 6 would also create a bit of a bonanza for lawyers who advise on environmental and other regulatory matters, particularly since it is to be followed on Feb. 8 by other environmental assessment legislation that will create a new Impact Assessment Act and Canadian Energy Regulator Act and amend the Navigation Protection Act. >click to read< 20:41
Bidders hungry for part of Arctic surf clam fishery after decades-long monopoly
The competition for newly available Arctic surf clam quota off Cape Breton has three times more applicants than previously reported, which is a sign of the interest in a fishery that has been controlled by a single company for decades. The Department of Fisheries and Oceans says it is evaluating nine proposals vying for 8,924 tonnes of surf clams in 2018. Until this year, the surf clam fishery was held entirely by Clearwater Seafoods,,, >click here to read<10:37
Think you’ve seen it all? Trudeau government proposes opening St. Lawrence marine protected area to oil exploration
The Liberal government is proposing to allow oil and gas exploration in a new marine protected area that it plans to establish where the Gulf of St. Lawrence meets the Atlantic Ocean. Ottawa released an impact statement Friday on its Laurentian Channel protected area, a 11,619-square-kilometre stretch of ocean in which commercial activity would be limited in order to protect vulnerable marine life. The establishment of the marine protected area (MPA) is part of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s promise to set aside 10 per cent of Canada’s coastal waters by 2020. But some environmental groups and ocean scientists argue Ottawa is undermining the effort by allowing future oil and gas exploration in the zone. click here to read the story 19:57
