MHA Dean urges reinstatement of processing protection for Northern Peninsula shrimp plants

Marshall Dean, MHA for the District of The Straits-White Bay North and Opposition Critic for Fisheries, says the Northern Peninsula is being hit especially hard by reckless government’s decisions, with the latest blow involving the shipping of gulf shrimp off the coast while two local plants sit idle.

Residents have been expressing anger that plants in Anchor Point and  Black Duck Cove have not been opened while shrimp landed in nearby ports is permitted to leave the peninsula for processing some 12 hours away. Dean raised this issue in the House of Assembly today with the minister of fisheries.

“The government removed the protection that was in place for a number of years which ensured that gulf shrimp landed on the peninsula was processed there for the benefit of the plant workers and communities,” says Dean. “This occurred during the Raw Material Sharing (RMS) process and while that program was shelved, the protection afforded these plants was never reinstated.” 

“My request to have this processing protection restored received neither an affirmative, nor a reassuring response from the minister.  Instead, he hinges all his faith for fishery solutions on the MOU process, which at this point does not appear to be moving forward at all. In fact, we are nearing the one-year anniversary of the signing of this agreement and there has been little or no progress to show for it.

 “The Northern Peninsula continues to be slammed by government without a thought for what each of these decisions mean, individually or collectively to the region.  The recent air ambulance move has had a devastating impact, as had the loss by NOFTA of the special allocation quota of northern shrimp.”

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