QUESTION PERIOD — Ministry of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard
Elver Fishery
March 7, 2023
Indigenous communities both in British Columbia and in the Maritimes enjoy Aboriginal fishing rights that have been upheld by the courts. Last year, your department took 14% of New Brunswick businesses’ baby eel and elver quotas and reallocated them to Indigenous peoples. The businesses didn’t receive any compensation, and the matter is still before the courts. I doubt your government would have acted with the same indecency and cut Indigenous people’s fishing quotas without at least negotiating and giving them compensation.
Could you explain your conduct towards these Maritime fishing companies? As a point of information, the 1,200 kilograms of elvers that you clawed back represent $6 million in revenue for the eight fishing companies. In your opinion, do those people not deserve to be considered?
Thank you for that question. My ministry and I prioritize willing buyer/willing seller as a mechanism for addressing the treaty rights that Indigenous communities have to fish, and we do that wherever it’s possible.
In the case of the elver fishery, we were not able to secure a quota for the Indigenous communities that was priced in a way that we deemed to be affordable and reasonable, so that’s why I went to the fish harvesters and their representatives directly and asked how they can help make sure that the right to fish of the Indigenous fishers can be satisfied. The proposal that was put in place was actually the one that came from the quota holders.
I appreciated that cooperation which provided an opportunity for the Indigenous fishers to have a share in that fishery, and from my perspective, that had multiple benefits.
