DFO DEPUTY MINISTER DEFENDS NORTHERN COD DECISION, MAINTAINS COMMITMENT TO NAFO NOT INSHORE

ST. JOHN’S, NL – Yesterday afternoon, FFAW-Unifor met with the Deputy Minister of Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Annette Gibbons, to reiterate the call to reverse last month’s Northern cod decision, reinstate the Stewardship Fishery, and reaffirm the 115,000mt commitment. Dismayed by DM Gibbons’ dismissal of the issue, Union representatives walked out of the meeting with DFO and joined fish harvesters at the Sheraton Hotel in downtown St. John’s to publicly demand a meeting with Prime Minster Justin Trudeau.

“Yesterday afternoon, we presented a 1300-page document to DFO, to Members of Parliament, and to the Prime Minister of Canada. This submission is a detailed record of the federal government’s commitment to Newfoundland and Labrador and to inshore fish harvesters,” explains FFAW-Unifor President Greg Pretty.  “The amount of evidence is absolutely staggering at this point, and the fact that these elected representatives and bureaucrats can sit there, look us in the eye, and tell us that they have made the right decision for our province  – it’s absolutely sickening,” says Pretty.

Harvesters, determined to get an audience with Justin Trudeau and unsatisfied with DFO’s response, demonstrated at a federal-provincial meeting of Environment Ministers. 

“Yesterday’s demonstration at the federal-provincial news conference was a success in that we got our message out there to more Canadians. But don’t think for a second that’s where it ends,” Pretty says. “Our members are ready and willing to do what needs to be done so that our message is heard loud and clear. The pressure will continue until this decision is reversed and the 115,000mt commitment is reaffirmed,” he says.

The June decision by DFO Minister Diane Lebouthillier broke a 42-year commitment to Newfoundland and Labrador inshore harvesters and let Canadian and international offshore draggers back into the fishery when the quota is at just over 6% of what it was the year before the moratorium was called. This year’s total allowable catch is ~19,000t, as opposed to the 190,000t in 1991, and a far cry from the 115,000mt threshold that has been promised in writing as recently as 2021 and as early as 1982.

“The evidence is overwhelmingly in our favour, and we have the public’s support to keep draggers out of our Northern cod fishery. We will not let this go, and we will hold our federal government, as well as all of our Newfoundland and Labrador MP’s, to account,” Pretty concludes.

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