Newfoundland and Labrador standing up for fair fisheries management
June 3, 2015
06/03/2015
The federal Conservative Government’s continued assault on the future of our province’s coastal communities will not be tolerated.
The Department of Fisheries and Oceans under the direction of Conservative MP Gail Shea has repeatedly subjected the people of our province to unfair fisheries management policies in favour of corporate profits and saving votes in conservative districts.
In the last year alone, the federal conservative government has cut the owner-operator inshore shrimp quota by 26% while cutting the corporate-owned offshore quota by only 5%. Just last month, Gail Shea broke the halibut stable sharing agreement to increase PEI quota by 87% while increasing NL quota by only 9%. Securing votes in the Maritime Provinces and increasing corporate profit is clearly more important than adhering to the longstanding principle of adjacency.
“These continued attacks by the federal Conservative government on rural Newfoundland and Labrador are shameful,” said FFAW-Unifor President Keith Sullivan. “The federal government seems to be under the impression that the economic sustainability Newfoundland and Labrador is unimportant to Canada. Recent analyses by others, such as BMO, suggest the contrary. The fishery is the economic future of our province but with management trends like this we will have no future.”
Our province was built off of the fishing industry. The volatility of oil has shown the importance of the renewable resources in the waters off our coast. If managed on sound principles such as historical dependency and adjacency, the industry has the ability to allow our coastal communities to thrive.
On Thursday, June 4 at 10:30 am at the Smallwood Building in Corner Brook, we will stand together to protect the future of our coastal communities and fight for fair fisheries management policy.
For media inquiries please contact cpelley@ffaw.net or 709-743-4445.