FFAW DEMANDS ENGOS HAVE NO PLACE AT THE ADVISORY TABLE

Following over a year of disagreement regarding who should sit around the table as fisheries stakeholders, FFAW-Unifor President Dwan Street is reiterating the demand that Environmental Non-Governmental Organizations (ENGOs) be barred from further advisories and lose all stakeholder status.

FFAW-Unifor has vowed to no longer participate in advisories where ENGOs have a seat at the table ­­­­— a table these entities should not have had a seat at to begin with. To be a stakeholder one must hold a stake in the industry.

“We are demanding, not requesting, that stakeholder status be removed from these groups effective immediately so we can get back to productive discussions on our fisheries that benefit our coastal communities,” says President Dwan Street.

ENGOs, which are privately funded by donors, corporations and other organizations are outside the purview of federal or provincial governments. These organizations, marked by their extreme stances on the fishery wherein they advocate for the end of fishing or extremely low TAC levels, do not grasp the needs of resource-dependent communities that are represented by true stakeholders in the industry.

The result of these extreme stances is an unwillingness of ENGOs to meaningfully participate in resource management.

“The sole purpose of these groups is to damage our coastal communities with their extremist views and demands on our industry, all in an attempt to pad their own coffers,” says Street. “They offer nothing beneficial to the discussion. We will not sit at any table where they have a voice. Some may say they belong in the back of the room but, in reality, they do not belong in the room at all,” Street explains.