Prime Minister's Office Issues Insincere Template Response to FFAW-Unifor's Request for Reaffirmation of Northern Cod Commitment

Yesterday, July 25th, FFAW-Unifor received an official response from the Prime Minister’s Office via email to its letter issued June 20th, requesting that the Government of Canada reaffirm the 115,000t commitment to inshore and Indigenous groups in advance of the 2024 Management Plan for Northern Cod.

Adding further insult to Minister Diane Lebouthillier’s announcement to re-open the Commercial Northern Cod Fishery despite best science and policy, the Prime Minister’s letter is clearly an insincere and careless templated response. The letter references the Minister of Housing, Honourable Sean Fraser, indicating that the letter is merely a standard acknowledgement updated from correspondence underneath Minister Fraser’s purview:

In FFAW’s June 20th letter, the Union indicated that the 115,000t commitment to inshore and Indigenous groups has been the documented position of the federal government for decades into recent history, citing the Liberal Party of Canada’s previous commitment in writing from September 2015, as well as the Department of Fisheries and Oceans’ (DFO) reaffirmation of the commitment in Section 6.1 of the 2021 Integrated Fisheries Management Plan.

Instead of affirming the significance of the commitment, the Prime Minister’s response affirms that the concerns of thousands in our province and across Canada are an outright non-priority, evidencing the importance of the Union’s decision to move forward with taking the matter to federal court.