Will our future include outports?” is the title of a report presented to the Newfoundland/Labrador government by the Fish, Food and Allied Workers (FFAW) in September.
Subtitled “Strengthening and sustaining rural communities through fisheries restructuring,” the report by the union both raises concerns about the future of outports but also offers steps that should be taken by the federal and provincial governments.
FFAW president Earle McCurdy says of the outports, “Newfoundland gets its distinctive character from these small rural communities. The fishery and the province itself are built on the population of the outports.”
The question of support for the Newfoundland fishery and the outports from the Conservative government in Ottawa was thrown into sharp relief by the Canadian election on October 14.
Despite the fact that Prime Minister Stephen Harper, of the Conservative Party, was returned to office, the three Conservative parliamentary seats in Newfoundland went to Liberals. This time Harper heads a minority government. Fisheries and Oceans Minister Loyola Hearn, who also represented the province in the federal Cabinet, chose not to run for reelection.
This leaves Newfoundland without representation in the federal Cabinet.
On October 15 McCurdy said, “I’m pretty certain this is the first time since Newfoundland joined Canada in 1949 that we have been left without a single representative on the government side. Because the fishery is federally regulated, this will add to the challenge of dealing with the kinds of problems that inevitably arise. Normally the Newfoundland cabinet representative in Ottawa ends up dealing with fisheries matters from time to time, even if that is not his portfolio.”
Newfoundland’s confederation with Canada in 1949 was led by then premier Joey Smallwood who also closed 250 outports, moving approximately 30,000 people to larger villages and towns.
As for the current situation, the FFAW report stressed the need to address the high costs and over-capitalization in the fishery, and to “finish the unfinished work of fisheries renewal.”
McCurdy calls the current situation in the fishery as “a house of cards.” He adds that a “fatal flaw” in the federal response to the fisheries renewal program was that the total bill for rationalization was passed to industry.
“It is crystal clear that meaningful capacity reduction will only take place if the two levels of government come to the table and cost-share the rationalization program” McCurdy says. “The premier’s recent letter to federal party leaders put the ball squarely in their court to match the provincial government’s commitment to cost-share these programs.
McCurdy also pointed to the impact of skyrocketing fuel prices on fishing enterprises. As an example, he advised the committee that 24 percent of the landed value of shrimp in the province is needed to pay fuel costs alone.
“This is not sustainable. The fuel issue is hitting big and small fishing enterprises alike,” he added.
Solutions in the report included cost-sharing of fleet reduction and early retirement programs, and a commitment by government to help finance retrofitting of fishing vessels to make them more fuel-efficient.
McCurdy also wants to see a coordinated marketing strategy and the re-establishment of a Fisheries Loan Board for the province.
“Access to capital is critical in order for combining to be successful,” he said. “Otherwise, the ballyhooed combining policy will only add to the debt burden enterprise owners are now carrying. This is not sustainable.”
McCurdy noted that Fisheries Loan Boards are currently in place in Quebec, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia, and that Quebec has developed a financing program to finance the combining, transfer and acquisition of licenses.
He also pointed to a recently announced $3.2 billion program in the European Union to finance the very programs the FFAW is advocating-early retirement, increasing the fuel efficiency of vessels, reducing the size of the fishing fleet and improved marketing.
“It’s extremely unfortunate that the Government of Canada has not put a cent into fisheries rationalization,” Mr. McCurdy added.
Before the election he said he was “encouraged” by Liberal Party leader Stephane Dion’s campaign promise to provide funding for license buyout and early retirement programs as well as funding to increase the fuel efficiency of fishing vessels.
McCurdy also noted that the Conservative offer of a two- cent per liter rebate of federal excise tax on duel is “irrelevant” because fishing vessel owners already qualify for an exemption of the full four-cent excise tax.
Before the election McCurdy said about a possible positive response from Ottawa, “I’m not holding my breath.”
Asked on October 15th if the election results would make dealings with Ottawa more difficult, He replied, “I hope not.”