"People who are interested in purchasing a salmon licence in this province are being inconvenienced by a decision made by government earlier this year," said Sweeney. "Government decided that only pre-paid licences would be placed in stores across the province this year. As I anticipated earlier this year, many of these locations are unable to afford to place money up front and therefore cannot sell salmon licences.

"Small businesses throughout the province sell these licences as a service to the public and make a very small fee for providing the service. It was irresponsible for government to implement this new arrangement without proper consultation with service providers to first determine the impact it would have."

The MHA is concerned with the impact these changes will have on the tourism industry for the summer of 2004. "People are calling my office because they cannot purchase a salmon licence anywhere in their local area. This means that residents and tourists cannot pursue a traditional sport due to government interference in the licencing process. I am calling on government to rectify this problem immediately before the tourism industry and local fisherpeople are further impacted."