North coast visit a priority for new Fisheries Minister

Providing the drama currently underway in Ottawa doesn’t take her job away, Gail Shea the newly minted Minister of Fisheries and Oceans hopes to visit the North coast in short order to learn more about the issues of the Pacific fishery.

She outlined her thoughts after Nathan Cullen, the MP for Skeena-Bulkley Valley spoke in the House of Commons about the state of the North Coast fishery and the crisis situation that the resources of the north coast face.

Cullen is hopeful that the Minister (if she’s still that by next week) will be visiting the North Coast in January to learn first hand of the troubles that face both fishermen, shore workers and plant owners up and down the coast.

For those looking for good omens and such, the new fish minister apparently likes to fish, a welcome change we suspect from some of the more recent holders of the job who seemed rather ill at ease not only with the industry, but the actual concept of throwing a line out in the water.

The Daily News featured the hopeful travel plans of Minister Shea as the front page headline story in Friday’s paper.

FISH MINISTER HOOKED ON IDEA OF A WEST COAST VISIT
Gail Shea says she will come to Prince Rupert soon - maybe as early as January
By Kris Schumacher
The Daily News
Friday, November 28, 2008
Page one

Following up on comments he made to The Daily News earlier this week, Skeena-Bulkley Valley MP Nathan Cullen stood up in Parliament yesterday to request that newly appointed Minister of Fisheries and Oceans Gail Shea make a trip to Prince Rupert.

Cullen informed the House of B.C.'s depleted wild salmon stocks and identified salmon quotas and Employment Insurance reform as the two most critical areas of change needed to assist fish stocks and industry workers.

"On the North Coast of British Columbia we have lost upwards of 80 per cent of our commercial fishing fleet in the last seven years," Cullen told Shea, a Prince Edward Island MP.

"We have watched the decimation of fish stocks and the mishandling of the entire industry by a department in which decisions are made by bureaucrats here in Ottawa while dozens of on-the-ground officers are being cut."

He went on to ask the minister if she was willing to consider the fundamental reforms that are required for the fishing industry, and whether she was willing to visit coastal communities like Prince Rupert and Haida Gwaii to talk to the people affected by management decisions.

Shea replied that she is committed to visiting the West Coast "as soon as possible," and pointed to "sustainability, economic viability and consultation" as her "guiding principles" for managing her new department.

Cullen said yesterday afternoon that he spoke with Shea outside the House, and she again confirmed that visiting B.C.'s North Coast and talking to fishermen was a priority for her in the near future. Shea also told him she wasn't afraid to "shake things up" within the DFO, and run sustainable fisheries as part of a sustainable economy.

Following their conversation Cullen is now much more optimistic than earlier in the week, and said they both agreed that addressing Canadian fishery issues was far more important than political differences they may have.

"We're hoping for January, but we've got to work with her schedule and get her some time out there," said Cullen.

"She also likes to fish, so I've got to set up some fishing for her as well."

MP calls for stakeholders to be considered in DFO deliberations

With fears that this fishing season may be as poor as last years running through the region, the area MP, Nathan Cullen is calling on DFO to involve all local stakeholders in their decision making process.

Looking for a more locally based solution to fishing problems than those offered out of the bureaucracy of Ottawa, Cullen is hoping to see stakeholders provide input as to suggested opening and allocation decisions made by the federal department.

He outlined his thoughts on the fishery issue in Wednesday's Daily News.

MP urges DFO to finally get it right this year
By Leanne Ritchie
The Daily News
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Pages one and three

Skeena-Bulkley Valley MP Nathan Cullen is hoping this will be the year that Fisheries and Oceans Canada starts to include local stakeholders in its consultations.

"I've been meeting with commercial and sports fishermen from across the Northwest as well as First Nation communities and there is a great fear this could again be a terrible fishing year unless DFO changes its ways," he said.

"The fundamental push we are putting on right now is to allow for greater local input.
"I have been working with groups to set up stakeholder tables that allow local communities and the local interest groups to influence when openings happen, how they happen and how allocation decisions are made because it is too often that decisions are made in Ottawa which have little to do with reality on the ground here in the Northwest."

He said he hopes it will lay the groundwork for future seasons where fisheries management is brought closer to home, with fewer and fewer decisions being made in board rooms in Ottawa.
"I believe we are going to move to a locally influenced and managed fishery," he said.

"I think we will eventually have a table set up in this region before the season starts and then works with DFO throughout the season to set how the fishing takes place. If we are moving that way, it is high time the federal government starts bringing in those stakeholder groups and starts listening to the advice being given to them to adjust their fishing plans," said Cullen.
"The general trend has been we have been cycling out of control.

"The federal government rarely knows how many fish are coming in and, in fact, the fishing seasons have been unmitigated disasters for the last number of seasons."

While he recognized some stakeholder groups have clashed in the past over fisheries allocations, Cullen argued that stakeholders do all agree that they want a sustainable fishery. If they focus on that, the decisions are usually self evident.

"If we are unable to come to some agreement over how to make this sustainable, we don't deserve to have the fishery and we can't complain about Ottawa management," he said.

"If we are unhappy with the way DFO regulates this fishery and the results that come from it, then we have to step up to the plate and put aside those smaller differences because, fundamentally, most people who are involved with the fishery agree they want a sustainable fishery and one that we can pass on that is healthier than we when we found it. Under those principles, the decisions become quite clear."

He added he is also asking the competition bureau in Ottawa to look into the pathetic prices commercial fishermen are getting for their product.

"It's ridiculous there is a near monopoly for buying fish on the West Coast and we are taking to the competition board about investigating. Is price fixing going on and if so why is the federal government allowing it to be happening?" he asked.

"It doesn't happen when selling crude or automobiles or gas, why is it allowed to happen for fish? There's a couple of fronts we are taking for this."

The line forms on the left for DFO

Yet another group of the fishery sector is expressing its concerns over DFO policies as members of the provinces Halibut Fishery have launched a class action suit against the Department of Fisheries and Oceans.

The Daily news featured the details on the case in the Thursday edition, a story which was picked up by Canwest news and featured in the Vancouver Sun on Friday.

Halibut fishermen look to take on the DFO over quotas
By Kris Schumacher
The Daily News
Thursday, December 6, 2007
Page one

The federal Fisheries Minister can add one more disgruntled fishery to his list, as British Columbia halibut fishermen have now launched a class-action lawsuit against the Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada.

The lawsuit claims that the DFO quota initiative implemented on the halibut fishery in 2001 has unfairly withheld 10 per cent of the annual halibut harvest each season since. Lorne Iverson, a Burnaby-based halibut fisherman explained that DFO transferred a percentage of the entire halibut quota to a single licence holder, who then sold the quota back to other fishermen at inflated prices. Iverson claims that DFO then shared in the additional levies and the funds were allegedly used to support DFO research.

"The lawsuit seeks declaratory relief, restitution and damages from the federal minister of fisheries," said Meldon Ellis, a senior partner of Vancouver firm Ellis Business Lawyers, which filed the action.

"The fisheries were subjected to a funding scheme implemented by the DFO without legislative authority.

"In effect, the minister assessed a tax without parliamentary debate or budgetary approval, thus violating one of the longest-standing principles of tax law and constitutional democracies; that there be no taxation without representation."

Ellis said the lawsuit is based in part on a 2006 Federal Court ruling on a similar situation from the East Coast. In that judgment, the court found that the fisheries minister did not have the legal right to finance his department's research through the sale of snow crabs. The Federal Court of appeal determined that "the minister financed his scientific research program without first appropriating the funds necessary and by misappropriating resources that do not belong to him."

Gerald Dalum is president of an association of B.C. fishermen known as Fishing For Freedom, who are funding the disbursements for action. Dalum said the case is "long overdue," and could have "far reaching implications for the West Coast fishing industry".

"The industry doesn't object to contributing to science and research, but does object to funding costly government policies over which the industry has no input," he added.

According to the B.C. government1s Year in Review report on seafood for 2006, the B.C. halibut catch was valued at $53.9 million and represents nearly 45 per cent of the total harvest of groundfish caught in B.C.

2008 Salmon season looking grim

It was once the money season on the North coast, but lately it’s been anything but and if the salmon cycle tea leaves are correct, salmon season 2008 will be a disappointing one for all stakeholders.

A DFO forecast paints another long and frustrating year for fishermen in British Columbia’s salmon industry, as DFO suggests that opportunities for sport, commercial and aboriginal food fishing will be exceptionally rare in the Fraser River, the Skeena, and the west coast of Vancouver Island.

Sockeye will be at it’s low ebb in 2008, with predictions that the scenario next season will be quite similar to this year, which saw reduced catches for the fleets and less and less hours worked for shore workers.

Already talks have been held to go over the dire situation and decisions will have to be made regarding reductions, or outright closures to some sectors of the industry.

The Vancouver Sun’s Business writer Scott Simpson examined the latest offerings from the Vancouver headquarters of DFO Pacific.

Dismal forecast for Salmon populations next year
By Scott Simpson
Vancouver Sun
Friday, November 30, 2007

VANCOUVER - Things are going from bad to worse for Pacific salmon.

Just weeks after the close of an exceptionally poor year, a 2008 forecast by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans suggests that opportunities for sport, commercial and aboriginal food fishing will be exceptionally rare in the Fraser River, the Skeena, and the west coast of Vancouver Island.

Sockeye in 2008 will be at the low ebb of their four-year cycle of strong and weak runs and the department suggests about two million of the prized red-fleshed salmon could come back to the Fraser this year.

That's no better than the disastrous season just past, in which the Fraser commercial fleet was entirely excluded from the sockeye fishery and got only a brief, late-season opening for low-grade chum.

Prospects for chinook, the most sought-after Pacific salmon for its combination of size, sporting qualities and taste, are equally grim for many runs.

In an interview on Thursday, DFO division manager Brian Riddell said he expects even the constitutionally protected aboriginal fishery for food, societal and ceremonial purposes will take a hit.

He said the department has already held discussions with the commercial and recreation-tourism sectors of the fishery and they're aware that "they are going to be looking at some reductions."

He said the debate is focusing on whether to shut the fishery down entirely for those sectors, or provide a few limited opportunities.

"What is the least problematic or negative response you could take? You could take a major cut for one year and get good recovery - economically that might make very good sense but that's always an extremely tough decision to make."

Cheam First Nation member Ernie Crey, a former member of the Fraser Panel of the Pacific Salmon Commission, is warning aboriginal fishermen to lower their expectations.

"What I am trying to tell the Fraser tribal nations is that in order to preserve our right to fish, we will need to conserve the Fraser's salmon runs," Crey said in an interview.

He also said it would be unfair of the fisheries department to let the process drag out until next spring, both for aboriginals and for fishing guides and charter boat operators - and called for decision in the near future on chinook fishing in 2008.

"DFO needs to throw the flag down on the play right now. It's not wise, it's not fair to let things drift closer to May 1 and let the charter operators and the anglers think that come May 1 they are going to be back in the water fishing for chinook.

"It's not fair to the charter operators because they do a lot of advertising. A lot of them are building a business and a way of life around the fishery."

Conservationist Craig Orr, executive director of Watershed Watch Salmon Society, said "there are some grave, grave concerns for the future of chinook."

"We have to have a full commitment from government on the wild salmon policy. We are seeing some lip service around it but we're not seeing enough funding," Orr said in an interview.

Sportfishing Defence Alliance spokesman Bill Otway said he's not convinced the fishery will be as weak as DFO predicts.

In an interview, Otway said he expects enough fish coming back to the Fraser to support recreational fisheries for both sockeye and chinook.

Otway also suggested it would be prudent for the department to take a more proactive approach to preserving weaker stocks through the use of artificial enhancements such as hatchery fish.

In the court of public opinion DFO finds itself convicted of bureaucratic obstinance

It may be a little fish, but it might just provide for a big backlash!

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They can expect a blizzard of e mails and letters and a rising tide of angry phone calls at DFO for the next few days. All of that anger will be coming from the 604 and 250 area codes as word gets out that DFO has decided not to allow the annual CKNW herring sale to take place this year.

Citing a recent court case in New Brunswick that stated “you can’t take fish out of the ocean for charity”, the bureaucratic wheels have decided that the orphans and injured fishermen of British Columbia cannot benefit from the one day herring sale a tradition for more than fifty years in British Columbia.

Over the years, the herring sale has been organized by British Columbia’s most listened to radio station with the proceeds split between the CKNW orphans fund and a fund from the T Buck Suzuki foundation for fishermen injured during the course of their days on the seas.

The sale combines the media platform that the CKNW platform provides with the volunteer assistance of the Canadian Fishing Company and the members of UFAWU-CAW.

In recent years the sale has had to be cancelled due to bad weather, when the conditions made it unsafe to head out to bring in the charity load, or or due to a shortage of the fish, but never has it been cancelled due to an unexpected front of bureaucratic red tape rolling in.

Needless to say, the Vancouver radio station has made it the cause of the day on the air. Asking listeners to e mail, fax or call in their support to try and get the sale back on track for next year. And considering the size of the stations audience and its stature in the Lower Mainland as the main source of information, there’s a very good chance that very few people in southern BC will be unaware of the government edict. That makes for an awful lot of angry taxpayers from BC looking to blame somebody.

We're not sure who is in charge of Public Relations at the fisheries department, but the vision of denying orphans and injured fishermen the proceeds of a one day charity sale is certainly not the way to win hearts and minds of an already suspicious public.

Officials at DFO and the public can relive the outrage at the CKNW audio vault, where the entire two and a half hour morning show from Wednesday, complete with incredulous tales of silly regulations and tales of orphans soon to go without help, can be replayed over and over again for the next couple of weeks.