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

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Prime Minister’s Office Issues Insincere Template Response to FFAW-Unifor’s Request for Reaffirmation of Northern Cod Commitment
July 26, 2024

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.

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Dr. Erin Carruthers

Dr. Erin Carruthers is the Science Director and Senior Fisheries Scientist with the Fish, Food and Allied Workers Union (FFAW-Unifor), which is the labour union that represents the owner-operator fleet in Newfoundland and Labrador. The FFAW is committed to research and management that supports healthy oceans, fisheries, and coastal communities. Dr. Carruthers received her Ph. D. in Biology from Memorial University in 2011 followed by a postdoctoral fellowship with the Centre for Fisheries Ecosystems Research. Before coming to Newfoundland, Erin worked as a Research Biologist with Fisheries and Oceans Canada at the St. Andrews Biological Station. Her current research program is co-constructed with fish harvesters and includes research on coastal fishing communities, collaborative longline and trap surveys, and best practices for the avoidance, handling and release of unwanted catch.