Rally the troops on the mainland this friday 4-6 pm

[fishingbc]

HALIBUT UPDATE
West Vancouver Town Hall Meeting....

For several months now, the BC Sport Fishing Coalition has been applying political pressure on Ottawa in an effort to resolve to the current halibut allocation problem. We have been holding Town Hall meetings in cities throughout the Province and have prompted more than 2,000 angry anglers to attend and voice their concerns. Recently we requested a meeting with MP John Weston (West Vancouver, Sunshine Coast, Sea to Sky), but he never never returned any of our calls.

We have since discovered that John has scheduled his own public meeting. He has neither advertised nor posted the event, and more importantly, he scheduled it for 4PM on a Friday at the West Vancouver Library. In other words, it's an open public meeting that only a selected few have been notified of.

I can't help but feel that this meeting was booked with the intention of avoiding the recreational sector.. I have confirmed that this is a "public meeting" and all are welcome. It is vital that the recreational sector show up and voice our displeasure towards the Federal Government's Halibut Allocation policy.

I am asking you for some help. Spread the word about the meeting. Get your staff and friends involved. Let your staff go home early that day to attend. We need notify as many people as possible. In addition we need to muster as many of John's direct constituents as we can.

We do not believe that John Weston supports our views on halibut.
He is supporting the commercial sector.
He is on the fisheries committee and has major influence.

So let's get the word out. Please do what you can to exercise your right and responsibility to inform one of your elected representatives how you feel about his decision to gift your halibut to 436 lucky quota holders.

Rob Alcock,
President,
Sport Fishing Institute of British Columbia

More details on the Halibut town hall meetings please visit www.bchalibut.org

WEST VANCOUVER - This Friday March 11 4pm-6pm
Location:West Vancouver Library, 1950 Marine Drive West, Welsh Hall

 

[Pippen]

I hope the local media is being notified of this.........they would absolutely eat this up.

 

[fishingbc]

just called his office....what a joke....talk about PMS....holy crap....give this woman a call.....a real piece of work....starting screeeeamin at me....I work 8 hrs a day....what the hell is the trouble with the halibut....commercial this commercial that.....who are you?.....wheres is 250 area code?.....why are you calling here.....this isn't your problem, talk to your own MP.....blah blah blah.....anyway the room holds 200....fill er up boys....

West Vancouver
21-285 17th St.
West Vancouver, BC
V7V 3S6
Contact – 604 981 1790
1 800 665 6004
Fax 604 981 1794
westoj@parl.gc.ca
Lower Sunshine Coast
Open Tuesdays and Thursdays
#207 – 5760 Teredo Mall
P.O. Box 1505
Sechelt, BC
V0N 3A2
Contact – 604 885 2939

 

[Fish Assassin]

Call them up...I got hung up on when asking if they could reserve a few seats for me and a couple of my fishing buddies. LOL

 

[sammyslabber]

Phoned A few Buddies who run fishing tours out of Van The info On meeting has been passed along.Kind of a wierd time slot don't you think Fri 4-6pm ? West Van. hmmmm that's Jimmy Patterson's riding just a thought but that's why he sides with the commercial sector.

 

[IronNoggin]

Spread the word and let's FILL the place Ladz!
Time to let Weston understand these types of "private club" gatherings with the direct intent of manipulating the Fishing Committee and others' response to the issue is intolerable. Mr. Weston may believe that siding with his most prominent constituent, one Jimmy P that is, somehow represents the feelings of ALL the rest of his riding. Best we let him know that in that he is very much mistaken.

Wonder if Jimmy was on the Ottawa engineered Invitation List? And if so, will he show...?

Action Time Ladz!
Nog

 

[Gunsmith]

Yep the plan is to keeping the working stiff out of the way. He is only needed on voting day, otherwise he should be kept in the dark and fed horse shidt!

 

[Dogbreath]

Hmm..................

 

[Rockfish]

Sounds like he was hoping the only ones who would be there are his slipper skipper buddies and their representatives. I am sure they will be turning up to say what a wonderful job his government is doing managing the halibut fishery. It is wonderful for them alright.

Apparently Weston is trying to spin this as a meeting for constituents, forgetting the fact that he sits on the National Fisheries Committee and is influential on this national issue. Very well, it is short notice but I would suggest that those anglers in the area get the message out to every business in his constituency that makes a living off recreational anglers, tackle shops, boat, motor and trailer retailers, repair shops and marinas etc. and gets some signs up. Then contact any associations in his riding the represent anglers and make sure they know that the Federal government is continuing to privatize our right to fish and has been completely one sided and grossly unfair in the allocation of halibut to anglers. Everyone else who can go, should also attend.

It is halibut now but they are not stopping there and it will soon be all the other fish. Do we also want to have to pay some millionaire with political connections every time we want to take our children salmon fishing?

They need to know that this issue is not going to go away quietly or die down until it is resolved fairly. So far they have offered absolutely nothing but the same stalling tactics and pro quota owner propaganda that they have been throwing out for years.

The Feds recently went out and acquired 17% of the halibut quota from the slipper skippers to provide to First Nations. Why will they not do this on a smaller scale to increase the unfair recreational halibut allocation?

I have made other out of town meetings and would love to be at this one but I have a lot of critical medical appointments and trust me, I wish I did not. I will be there in spirit and good luck to all of those who can go to stand up for the rights of our children to go fishing and for the economy of BC.

Don’t be surprised if Weston tries to weasel out of the meeting now that it won’t be a completely one sided PR exercise and cancels or postpones it. When a politician wants to slide something through with the least amount of attention it is almost always done late on a Friday.

 

[Pippen]

Hey fishingbc.....can you confirm if anyone from the SFIBC and others on the "12% side" of things have been in touch with media?

 

[Gunsmith]

Rockfish you have the right idea, you go close to home find the weakest point of the armor and keep on pushing the spear in until they feel the point. These guys live for money if you can find the weak point you can hurt them.

 

[tortuga]

West Van. hmmmm that's Jimmy Patterson's riding just a thought but that's why he sides with the commercial sector.

He is the commercial sector.

 

[traveller]

The BC SFC are doing our best on this one, we will be there to help, but this where we depend on support from all of you can possibly turn out and be a " number"...we need a visible demonstration that this is a " Team B.C." concern, and Team a B.C. will keep on it wherever the opportunity arises. What does he think? Only constituents care? At the Pitt Meadows town Hall Meeting we had commercial folk from Tofino, Ucluelet, and Prince Rupert...Why wouldn't we attend his small private Town Hall Meeting?

Traveller

 

[Rockfish]

The BC SFC are doing our best on this one, we will be there to help, but this where we depend on support from all of you can possibly turn out and be a " number"...we need a visible demonstration that this is a " Team B.C." concern, and Team a B.C. will keep on it wherever the opportunity arises. What does he think? Only constituents care? At the Pitt Meadows town Hall Meeting we had commercial folk from Tofino, Ucluelet, and Prince Rupert...Why wouldn't we attend his small private Town Hall Meeting?

Traveller

I seem to recall hearing that the commercial guys took the seats next to the mike and lined up fast to monopolize it. You may want to get there early guys and be prepared to get your chance at the mike.

 

[fishingbc]

not sure i'm outta town but i think someone may have done that end of it already

Sounds like he was hoping the only ones who would be there are his slipper skipper buddies and their representatives. I am sure they will be turning up to say what a wonderful job his government is doing managing the halibut fishery. It is wonderful for them alright.

Apparently Weston is trying to spin this as a meeting for constituents, forgetting the fact that he sits on the National Fisheries Committee and is influential on this national issue. Very well, it is short notice but I would suggest that those anglers in the area get the message out to every business in his constituency that makes a living off recreational anglers, tackle shops, boat, motor and trailer retailers, repair shops and marinas etc. and gets some signs up. Then contact any associations in his riding the represent anglers and make sure they know that the Federal government is continuing to privatize our right to fish and has been completely one sided and grossly unfair in the allocation of halibut to anglers. Everyone else who can go, should also attend.

It is halibut now but they are not stopping there and it will soon be all the other fish. Do we also want to have to pay some millionaire with political connections every time we want to take our children salmon fishing?

They need to know that this issue is not going to go away quietly or die down until it is resolved fairly. So far they have offered absolutely nothing but the same stalling tactics and pro quota owner propaganda that they have been throwing out for years.

The Feds recently went out and acquired 17% of the halibut quota from the slipper skippers to provide to First Nations. Why will they not do this on a smaller scale to increase the unfair recreational halibut allocation?

I have made other out of town meetings and would love to be at this one but I have a lot of critical medical appointments and trust me, I wish I did not. I will be there in spirit and good luck to all of those who can go to stand up for the rights of our children to go fishing and for the economy of BC.

Don’t be surprised if Weston tries to weasel out of the meeting now that it won’t be a completely one sided PR exercise and cancels or postpones it. When a politician wants to slide something through with the least amount of attention it is almost always done late on a Friday.

 

[IronNoggin]

The John Weston “Public” Town Hall meeting has been changed to a new location to accommodate the larger anticipated attendance.

The new location is…

West Vancouver Community Center
2121 Marine Drive
Bottom Floor – Music Room

Cheers

 

[sammyslabber]

Ironnoggin why not post a new banner about the location change some only read once Thanx

 

[Hindsight]

Do we have a bus going from the island ?

 

[IronNoggin]

UPDATE:

Front Page North Shore News

Overall the meeting went well.

Cheers,
Nog

 

[Dogbreath]

I see of my long time fishing partners on the front page-he doesn't look too happy (!)