All-party HOA committee needed to pressure feds on shrimp quota: Opposition

Marshall Dean, MHA for The District of The Straits-White Bay North and Opposition Fisheries Critic, is calling upon the provincial minister of fisheries to immediately launch an all-party committee of the House of Assembly to pressure the federal government to change its shrimp quota allocation formula.

The federal minister of fisheries announced a last in-first out quota cut to the Northern Shrimp quota this week, resulting in two special license holders losing their entire quotas in Area Six.  One of these groups is the North of Fifty Thirty Association (NOFTA) which supports 350 fishing enterprises.

“This cut will have a huge impact on the Northeast coast in the short-term and in the longer-term,” says Dean. “Simply writing a letter to the federal minister outlining our concerns, as the provincial minister has done, is an inadequate representation of our position and does not effectively underscore just how severe an impact this decision will have on our people and communities.”   

Dean points out that this all-party committee could also consist of industry representatives and would make a formal presentation to the federal minister of fisheries as one voice.  “The quota cut is based on science and that we accept; however, the way the cut has been imposed is wrong.  It goes against one of the principles outlined in the shrimp management plan – that of adjacency.  A fairer approach would have been a prorated cut across all license holders, so as to lessen the impact.”

The MHA also questioned the fisheries minister in the Legislature today on what measures government was prepared to  do to compensate fishers for the loss of income, as well as what more effective means of pressuring the government he was undertaking.

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