Dr. Anna Robbins, President of Acadia Divinity College, hosted a conversation with Dr. Danny Zacharias of Acadia Divinity College and Dr. Lois Mitchell of St. Stephen's University. They discussed the question "What are we learning as Christians from the Nova Scotia fishery dispute?" During the discussion a mention was made that a threat to the traditional livelihood of both indigenous and non-indigenous fishers exists at this time.
Cliff White wrote in December 2016, that the Nova Scotia fishery faces a court challenge to its governing rules. Graeme Gawn, president of the local fishermen’s union and a representative of the Canadian Independent Fish Harvester Federation, said third-party agreements enable corporate interests to gain a disproportionate share of fishing profits.
“Corporate interests have influenced officials to bend, alter and ignore the critical fleet separation and owner-operator policies to allow them to gain control over our licenses, effectively siphoning the earnings of our inshore fisheries from those coastal communities and into distant corporate treasuries,” Gawn testified to Canada’s Standing Committee on Fisheries.
“In Nova Scotia, where I fish, thousands of inshore seasonal owner-operators have effectively been dis-enfranchised from their traditional fisheries in the ‘drive to privatize’ as the government looked the other way… People will still get fishing jobs but 90 percent of profit from it is extracted to be invested elsewhere, and the companies get to control prices and labor costs,”1
A report by Jordan Nikoloyuk and David Adler, of the Ecology Action Centre, is titled “Valuing our Fisheries - Breaking Nova Scotia's Commodity Curse.” Since 1971, the Ecology Action Centre has been working to build a healthier, more sustainable Nova Scotia. The EAC works closely with social and natural scientists and makes strong use of science in communicating its message to the public. The executive summary of the report notes that Atlantic Canada has joined much of the rest of the world in a race to produce high volumes of low cost protein for global commodity markets. In Nova Scotia, independent fishermen who act as ‘owner operators’ of vessels are increasingly unable to make a living by fishing. Processing plants are closing, taking with them valuable employment opportunities, and Nova Scotia’s rural population continues to decline. The only remaining fishery that inshore fishermen can reliably earn a living from is lobster; however, this reliance on a single species is dangerous.
The geography of the province and the historical export orientation of Nova Scotia seafood – supported by favourable exchange rates that no longer exist – has led to the creation of an industry largely focused on production and distribution of high volume, low value commodity products. For individual actors selling to an integrated global market, this situation is simply the result of individual choices that make sense: transportation costs are high, labour costs are high, production fluctuates and historic over capitalization means that constant throughput is required for some operations. This unfortunate economic truth highlights a major problem of this industry that underlies issues faced in different chains: the transactional model for production of high volume, low value commodity products. With a wide variety of actors working to underbid each other, the industry as a whole has suffered. Recreating an industry that supports a resilient, regional food system will require moving away from this model of individual actors working at cross purposes.2Paul Withers of CBC News reports that Canada's Department of Fisheries and Oceans says it's cracking down on so-called "controlling agreements" that result in fishermen holding a fishing licence in name only. Morley Knight, the department's manager for the Maritimes, said five licence-compliance reviews have been completed in the region and other cases are ongoing. They allow companies to get around DFO's owner-operator policy, which is meant to ensure the independence of Atlantic Canada's inshore fishery. Cape Breton lobster fisherman Kevin Squires says fisheries groups like the Maritime Fishermen's Union have been demanding more scrutiny for years.
"The numbers we're hearing of the cases they managed to find problems with is pretty small," said Squires, referring to the results of the review referenced in Knight's letter. "We are continuing to hear from southwest Nova (Scotia) in particular that companies are continuing to buy licenses."3The Ecology Action Center reports on an alternate distribution method for the catch of independent fishers known as the Off the Hook Community Supported Fishery.
In the spring of 2010, five bottom hook and line fishermen from the Digby Neck and Islands along the Bay of Fundy in Nova Scotia formed as Off the Hook Cooperative and joined with the Ecology Action Centre to launch Atlantic Canada’s first Community Supported Fishery (CSF). Like other direct marketing enterprises, CSFs provide several benefits to small scale fishermen, including more family income, more market choices, increased ownership and livelihood control. By securing payment at the start of the season, the fishermen are ensured a fair price for their catch, while subscribers enjoy a reliable source of local, sustainable fish..2Current profitability in the Nova Scotia fishery of high volume, low value commodity products is mostly due to corporate ownership and high volume harvesting. Perhaps joint action by both indigenous and non-indigenous to develop a Community Supported Fishery (CSF) will retain livelihood and increase profitability of small independent inshore fishing operations.
References
No comments:
Post a Comment