fishingbc
Active Member
February 24, 2009
Honourable Gail Shea, Minister
Fisheries and Oceans Canada
House of Commons
Ottawa Ontario
K1A 0E6
Dear Minister Shea:
The BC Wildlife Federation (BCWF) is in receipt of a copy of your letter to Mr. Gerry
Kristianson, Chair of the Sport Fishing Advisory Board detailing your decision to continue
the policy of gifting 88% of the public Pacific Halibut resource to selected commercial
harvesters to use as their private property in perpetuity.
By the end of the January 14 2009 meeting in Vancouver with BCWF representatives,
our representatives believed you understood how important the public’s Halibut fishery
was to our sector. The small amount of additional halibut quota we requested (equivalent
to the amount of commercial allocation left in the water last year) would have provided
some economic stability to the public fishery, a strong contributor to the Canadian
economy with a value of $1.4 billion in B.C. alone. Your decision to not provide some
flexibility within the Canadian TAC to increase the public’s share in the short term will
curtail recreational fishing opportunities in 2009, reduce economic benefits by tens of
millions of dollars and put a substantial portion of the 7,700 jobs in the public fishery at
risk.
With respect, Minister, we can find no economic or legal rationale for your decision. By
any standard, halibut generate a higher economic benefit, pound for pound, from the
public recreational fishery than from the private commercial fishery. The law is clear that
the fisheries are the common property of all the people of Canada; that allocating access
is a matter of your discretion and that it is your duty to manage the fishery on behalf of
all Canadians in the public interest (Comeau’s Seafoods Ltd. v. Canada (Fisheries and
Oceans) [1997] 1 S.C.R.12 S.C.C). We are therefore more than a little puzzled about
the statement in your letter that a transfer of quota from the commercial sector “poses
difficult financial and legal risks for the department” and we request a formal explanation.
Minister, the reaction from our 30,000 plus members to your letter has been one of
disbelief that you would refuse to provide reasonable public access to a public resource
BC Wildlife Federation
Unit 101 – 3060 Norland Ave., Burnaby, BC V5B 3A6
Phone 604 291 9990 Toll Free 1 888 881 BCWF (2293) Fax 604 291 9933
www.bcwf.bc.ca
and strong dismay at your apparent suggestion that SFAB representatives go back to
the table to continue seeking a sharing arrangement with the commercial sector under
“provisions for agreed adjustments”. Please explain this term as we are unaware that
there are any agreed adjustments. Our representatives advise that the SFAB has made
every effort to work within the untenable position imposed by Minister Thibault on the
public fishery in 2003 to achieve a fair and equitable solution but to no avail. Your
intransigence and that of your senior Ottawa staff and the commercial sector have
convinced our representatives that further discussions in this forum are pointless. The
only solution now is for you to find the flexibility within the TAC to provide the public
fishery with sufficient quota to conduct this fishery within the normal bag/possession
limits of 2/3.
Your decision to maintain the status quo with respect to Halibut further confirms the
belief of our members that you and your government have given away 88% of this
valuable public resource for the financial benefit of a few individual fishers and that you
intend to continue this process of privatization of our common property resources to the
detriment, if not the demise, of the public fishery.
Our membership expects prompt and fair action that respects the court decisions,
recognizes the economic value of the public halibut fishery on Pacific coast and the
potential devastation to the recreational fishery by this untenable approach to the halibut
fishery. Please be assured that the BCWF representatives and membership have a long
history on the Pacific coast halibut fishery and will continue to work on this issue until
their opportunity is restored.
Yours in conservation,
Mel Arnold, Patti MacAhonic,
President BC Wildlife Federation Executive Director, BCWF
Honourable Gail Shea, Minister
Fisheries and Oceans Canada
House of Commons
Ottawa Ontario
K1A 0E6
Dear Minister Shea:
The BC Wildlife Federation (BCWF) is in receipt of a copy of your letter to Mr. Gerry
Kristianson, Chair of the Sport Fishing Advisory Board detailing your decision to continue
the policy of gifting 88% of the public Pacific Halibut resource to selected commercial
harvesters to use as their private property in perpetuity.
By the end of the January 14 2009 meeting in Vancouver with BCWF representatives,
our representatives believed you understood how important the public’s Halibut fishery
was to our sector. The small amount of additional halibut quota we requested (equivalent
to the amount of commercial allocation left in the water last year) would have provided
some economic stability to the public fishery, a strong contributor to the Canadian
economy with a value of $1.4 billion in B.C. alone. Your decision to not provide some
flexibility within the Canadian TAC to increase the public’s share in the short term will
curtail recreational fishing opportunities in 2009, reduce economic benefits by tens of
millions of dollars and put a substantial portion of the 7,700 jobs in the public fishery at
risk.
With respect, Minister, we can find no economic or legal rationale for your decision. By
any standard, halibut generate a higher economic benefit, pound for pound, from the
public recreational fishery than from the private commercial fishery. The law is clear that
the fisheries are the common property of all the people of Canada; that allocating access
is a matter of your discretion and that it is your duty to manage the fishery on behalf of
all Canadians in the public interest (Comeau’s Seafoods Ltd. v. Canada (Fisheries and
Oceans) [1997] 1 S.C.R.12 S.C.C). We are therefore more than a little puzzled about
the statement in your letter that a transfer of quota from the commercial sector “poses
difficult financial and legal risks for the department” and we request a formal explanation.
Minister, the reaction from our 30,000 plus members to your letter has been one of
disbelief that you would refuse to provide reasonable public access to a public resource
BC Wildlife Federation
Unit 101 – 3060 Norland Ave., Burnaby, BC V5B 3A6
Phone 604 291 9990 Toll Free 1 888 881 BCWF (2293) Fax 604 291 9933
www.bcwf.bc.ca
and strong dismay at your apparent suggestion that SFAB representatives go back to
the table to continue seeking a sharing arrangement with the commercial sector under
“provisions for agreed adjustments”. Please explain this term as we are unaware that
there are any agreed adjustments. Our representatives advise that the SFAB has made
every effort to work within the untenable position imposed by Minister Thibault on the
public fishery in 2003 to achieve a fair and equitable solution but to no avail. Your
intransigence and that of your senior Ottawa staff and the commercial sector have
convinced our representatives that further discussions in this forum are pointless. The
only solution now is for you to find the flexibility within the TAC to provide the public
fishery with sufficient quota to conduct this fishery within the normal bag/possession
limits of 2/3.
Your decision to maintain the status quo with respect to Halibut further confirms the
belief of our members that you and your government have given away 88% of this
valuable public resource for the financial benefit of a few individual fishers and that you
intend to continue this process of privatization of our common property resources to the
detriment, if not the demise, of the public fishery.
Our membership expects prompt and fair action that respects the court decisions,
recognizes the economic value of the public halibut fishery on Pacific coast and the
potential devastation to the recreational fishery by this untenable approach to the halibut
fishery. Please be assured that the BCWF representatives and membership have a long
history on the Pacific coast halibut fishery and will continue to work on this issue until
their opportunity is restored.
Yours in conservation,
Mel Arnold, Patti MacAhonic,
President BC Wildlife Federation Executive Director, BCWF
