MR. SPEAKER:
Further petitions?
The hon. the Member for the
District of The Straits & White Bay North.
MR. DEAN:
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I will read the prayer of the
petition into the record.
To the hon. House of Assembly of
the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador in Parliament
Assembled.
The petition of the undersigned
residents humbly sheweth:
WHEREAS
the shrimp industry is in crisis for both harvesters and
processors; and
WHEREAS
previously there was protection for Gulf shrimp plants
and plant workers through a regional processing
restriction mechanism ("the cap") which prevented landed
shrimp from being trucked for processing beyond the
region where it was landed;
WHEREUPON
the undersigned, your petitioners, humbly pray and call
upon the House of Assembly to urge the government to
reinstate the regional processing restriction ("the
cap") in order to preserve the principle of adjacency
for shrimp processing and to ensure that employment
opportunities are protected for plant workers and the
overall viability of communities in the region.
And as in duty bound your
petitioners will ever pray.
Mr. Speaker, I am pleased this
afternoon to be able to stand and present this again to
the House of Assembly and before this government to say
that again we have a crisis in the fishing industry. We
are seeing it around in every species at the present
time. The issue of adjacency, the issue of shipping
shrimp past idle plants is something that just does not
make sense. It is not in the best interest of the
people. It is not protecting their jobs. It is putting
their livelihoods in jeopardy and so on.
Mr. Speaker, there was a process
put in place back in the 1990s that worked quite well,
where this cap on the Gulf shrimp in particular was
there. It had to be processed locally. It had to be
processed in the region where it was harvested. Mr.
Speaker, this cap was removed in 2006 approximately,
when the RMS discussions and debate began.
Mr. Speaker, we have come to a
point where, with shrimp quota cuts last year, more cuts
this year, which we still do not know what the final
outcome will be. It is time, Mr. Speaker, that that cap
be repositioned, that it be reinstated. That is why
today this petition is here in the House of Assembly.
That is why I am pleased to be able to present it today,
to call upon this government, to call upon the Minister
of Fisheries in particular, to reinstate this cap that
worked well in the past and there is no reason why it
cannot work well and protect the jobs for this year and
into the future.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
