My letter to Shea

[Jencourt]

Dear Minister Shea: Feb 22 2011
I am writing this letter to you today in direct response to your Feb 15th announcement on pacific halibut fishing for 2011.
I will begin by telling you that I have no connection or vested interest in any business that profits from fishing. I am just a lifelong sport fisher that is very concerned and angry about the direction you and your department are taking the future of our treasured resource. Your decision to uphold the current 88/12 allocation of the TAC is both unacceptable and a slap in the face to me and the large majority of Canadians that understand the issue and the implications this decision has.

In your statement you said “Our Government understands the value and significance of the Pacific halibut fishery to British Columbians”. Clearly, you do NOT, or you just don’t give a darn. I suspect both are true. Your suggestion that you will “make available to interested recreational stakeholders experimental licenses that will allow them to lease quota from commercial harvesters” is proof positive that you’re administration is only concerned with keeping the few and the richest happy.
I and many others refuse to allow you to continue making what are clearly political and selfish decisions in regards to OUR resources. By your own statement you said “All fish management decisions are made to meet the following three priorities: conservation, sustainability of the fishery and economic viability.”Well, in the case of Halibut, the conservation and sustainability is in the capable hands of the IPHC.As far as economic viability is concerned, that does NOT mean you’re own political viability and you’re closest supporters economic viability. These fish swim in Canadian waters that wash the shores of British Columbia. It is the thousands and thousands of BC residents ,as well as the many halibut fishers across Canada that depend on fair access to the resource that you continue to abandon. The fact that you support and institute the idea that the Canadian public should pay private citizens for the right to fish is a clear demonstration of your administrations selfish and narrow minded approach to managing the resource.We only need to look at your management of the Port Alberni Chinook fishery to see that.
This is not a conservation issue and it is not a case of sport fishers wanting more than they deserve. This is however a case of myself and many others demanding that you change the current allocation percentages to better represent the importance and impact that sport fishing has in Canada. This absolutely has to start with putting an end to absentee quota holders.(Slipper Skippers). Put an end to the current system that has allowed a public resource to become private property controlled by what can only be described as “Fish Lords”.
I will be sending a copy of this letter to Prime Minister Harper. In this letter I will urge him to direct you to right your wrongs or replace you with a more competent minister that will put the well being of the resource and those who rightfully own it ahead of their own personal political gain.
Ray Haines.

 

[GLG]

dang your write good.
GLG

 

[Hindsight]

Nice work

Just sent a short note just layed off three employees.

More to come in a small town...

 

[Deewar25]

Nice one Ray - the letter to the PM will just get looped back to Shea, but at least she will get it twice!

Reply I got from Harper's office:

The matter you raise falls more directly within the jurisdiction of the Minister of the Fisheries and Oceans, the Honourable Gail Shea. Therefore, we have forwarded a copy of your correspondance to her office.

No chit sherlock...but she doesn't listen to squat and that's why I sent it to you....duhhhhh

 

[Fish Assassin]

Good work Ray,

 

[lorneparker1]

Nice one Ray,

But im not impotent!

Lorne

 

[Islandgirl]

GREAT Letter Ray.. wish I could write that well!!

 

[King_Cod]

Well written letter Jencourt!

 

[Fish-Hunter]

Well written Ray. I sure as hell hope that if she reads at least one of all of the letters that have been sent to her, she at least reads this one twice!!

Good Job!

Although, she will probably be too busy to read any letters here for the next little while, did you hear that Lippy got a DFO insider to hide her Halibut Catch Limit DARTS, so she is probably feeling a little panicky right now not knowing how she is going to determine the end of our Halibut fishing season - LOL

Cheers,
Jay.

 

[Jencourt]

Ha ha ha Lorne. damn spell check.I sent it like that too crap!! wish I could edit an email at least I can fix it on the hard copies I am going to mail tomorrow.

 

[chris73]

No worries, jencourt. Nobody in Ottawa will read it closely anyway...

 

[Fishing Guide]

Cheers All,

Sad part is that, while the reply was made to elicit humour, it is tragically true....

 

[chris73]

Felt like writing too today:

Minister Shea:
Regarding your February 15, 2011 announcement on the halibut quota allocation;
Just a few quick questions: You do realize that the halibut biomass is healthy and actually increasing which is reflected by the fact that the IPHC slightly increased Canada’s TAC? So why do you keep on riding conservation and sustainability in your explanations if it is a non-issue? Leave the conservation part to the people that obviously understand more about it than DFO, the IPHC.
Why do you say that you understand the value of the halibut fishery to BC? You obviously lost that understanding the moment you decided to curtail the far more profitable halibut sport fishery by keeping them at a meagre 12% share while favouring the commercial fishery that provides much less benefits to BC and therefore also to the Canadian public. Are you sure you understand your mandate?
What justifies the fact that the majority of the Canadian halibut quota, a public resource, was gifted and continues to be kept by a few wealthy, non-fishing individuals? Do you actually know who you are to serve in your function as a minister in the Canadian government? Just a hint in case you forgot: the Canadian public? The oath you swore when you became a federal minister, was there any mentioning of wealthy fish lords or the Canadian public?
Maybe think about this and send me your answers should you find any.

 

[chris73]

And because it felt so good another one:

Dear Minister and MP Gary Lunn:
I, as one of your Saanich constituents, am very concerned about the government’s recent decision and February 15, 2011 announcement on the halibut quota allocation which curtails the far more profitable halibut sport fishery by keeping them at a meagre 12% share while favouring the commercial fishery that provides much less benefits to BC and therefore also to the Canadian public. As you probably know, there are no conservation concerns with halibut as the halibut biomass is healthy and actually increasing which is reflected by the fact that the International Pacific Halibut Commission (IPHC) slightly increased Canada’s TAC in 2011. The conservation part is in good hands with the IPHC.
I urge you to take action and convince the Fisheries Minister that her decision to maintain the unfair 88/12 quota split is wrong and to the detriments of our coastal economy. A flourishing sport fishing sector can contribute far more to our local economy through tourism and all related industries than any commercial fishery ever will. And all that with a very limited impact on the resource. Nobody asked to have the commercial halibut fishery completely dismantled but rather give both sectors enough room to flourish and provide the maximum benefit from a Canadian resource to the Canadian public.
I probably do not need to remind you of your oath as federal minister and elected member of parliament that you are to serve the Canadian public as best as you can. Here is your chance and I as your constituent demand nothing less of you.
Sincerely,

 

[Gunsmith]

I would write her too but I believe that she is just a talking head and the batteries are going to run out soon.

 

[Peahead]

Great letter Jencourt. Mail same to your area MP as well.

 

[Jencourt]

So I sent this short letter(below) to PM Harper along with a copy of the my letter to SHEA.(Subject of this thread)

Dear Prime Minister Harper: Feb 22 2011

I am writing you today to express my concerns in the way that Minister Shea is handling the west coast fishery .I have no vested interest in any business that profits from fishing. I am just a lifelong sport fisher. I will not waste your time with redundant fact presenting in regards to Halibut allocation and the numbers representing sport vrs commercial fishing.

I will however, express my deep sadness in regards to the ongoing privatization of our treasured public resource. As well as the continued abandonment and disregard we in the west are feeling from the current government.

I know that you have entrusted Minister Shea to look after fisheries and oceans and that your office has stated in letter responses that this is an issue for her. Well sir, your administration is not acting in good faith and in the best interests of that which it is charged with representing. With that being said I have every right as a Canadian to call upon you to get involved and see to it that the right things are being done.

I call upon you to demand that Minister Shea abandons her steadfast desire to privatise our public fisheries and to see to it that she starts making decisions that will benefit the majority and not the few closest to her. If Minister Shea is unable or unwilling to do so then I call upon you to replace her with a more competent and less one dimensional minister.

Your response to this issue will have a direct affect on the decision of me and the hundreds of thousands of Canadians this affects as we head to the polls in the near future. This is a group of people who are getting larger by the day as we educate people across the nation.

Please find below a copy of the letter I sent Minister Shea in response to her announcement regarding the 2011 halibut season. It clearly shows my views on her behavior to this point.

Thank you for your time and I hope to hear a response from you as I did not get one from my previous letter I sent some time ago.

Best regards: Ray Haines

Here is his offices response.

Dear Mr. Haines:

On behalf of the Right Honourable Stephen Harper, I would like to thank you for your recent e-mail.

Please be assured that your comments have been noted and that they will receive due consideration from the Minister, who has already received a copy of your correspondence.

 

[Fish-Hunter]

Please be assured that your comments have been noted and that they will receive due consideration from the Minister, who has already received a copy of your correspondence.

Now that has to make you fell better Ray, "your comments have been noted". Also as a bonus they "will receive due consideration from the Minister".

I think that I would reply to that response letter with a thank-you note that the Minister is finally going to give your comments due consideration. We all know that it is "due" time that the Minister gives this whole issue "due" consideration and show some "due" respect to the Canadians that she works for, and NOT in her "due" time, RIGHT NOW!