Clawing our way Forward - Co-op-eratively

Fisheries Policy in Canada and Newfoundland and Labrador is - to say the least - a failure.

1. Our ground fish stocks were destroyed by federal management.
2. We have lost 80,000 people from our province as a result.
3. We have lost dozens of communities as a result.
4. Continued decline of processing these natural resources.
5. Continued increase in Corporate desire to ship unprocessed catch.

The lobster fishermen in our province are moving forward with a "new" approach to their fishery by voting to form a Co-op. This in turn allows them more control with respect to pricing and offers them alternatives to the continued control of pricing by the buyers/processors.

Sounds great to me.

How about this?

If the species is processed in the province - let the harvesters and buyers/processors work it out while growing jobs for secondary added value.

The only time the government of Newfoundland and Labrador should consider a request to ship raw catch out of the province is when that request comes from a harvesters co-op.

If you want to be a processor - then process. Do not seek to become a harvester by proxy - while diminishing the real economic potential of value-added production.

The province should then reinstate a marketing arm that will help harvesters sell their catch to foreign markets - when processors have no interest in value-added production of the species.

The government of Newfoundland and Labrador have a responsibility to all people of the province and in the socio/economic well being of same. The corporate processors have responsibility to make as much profit as possible for the shareholders of their companies.