If you can first put aside the learned hatred of everything fish for one moment - then we might start pulling on the same oar.
Ottawa is responsible for the collapse of the fishery as they control the management of the stocks and fishing grounds.
20 years after a moratorium slated to last 10 years - we are collapsing further.
This is not the time to downsize or rationalize - we will not have an industry left. All we will witness is GDP and that will be attributable to unprocessed fish being gouged by a few corporations.
Now is the time to seek a real solution.
We have lost a billion a year since 2002 when the moratorium was supposed to be over. That did not happen.
Because of that we have lost twice that - as we have also lost transfer payments (per-capita) - due to population loss - that pays for transportation, health, and education.
We have also lost communities, investment, families, depreciated asset value, and future industrial potential.
If we demand that Ottawa - pay up - 1 billion x 10 years = 10 billion so far and counting.
Why are we rationalizing?
Why are we downsizing?
Because we have lost our fishery!
That is not acceptable.
We need our fishermen for science, research, and industrial planning.
We need our plant workers to work on new product lines.
We need these people and our provincial government to work on markets.
Is this a reasonable ask?
Of course it is - the feds bail out agriculture year over year to preserve food security, communities, families and that industry. Remember that the feds are not even responsible for drought, floods, market woes, and foreign subsidization for our competitors. They still pay - year over year.
Of course it is - the feds bailed out Ontario when the auto-makers collapsed and industry suffered in Central Canada. Billions and billions. They were not responsible for that occurrence.
They are responsible for the loss of the ground-fish stocks and are responsible for not protecting the fishing grounds. They are responsible for bartering our fish stocks away to foreigners so that other provinces would get manufacturing and industrial investment.
Instead our politicians are sucking their thumbs and doing nothing to correct this problem. We have suffered a grave injury and we are entitled to compensation.
Instead our politicians are looking for ways to boot people out of the fishery with a package.
Instead our politicians are looking to downsize and rationalize.
There is no rationalization - there must be compensation.
Then 25,000 of our people per year could be doing something beneficial - to help rebuild stocks, develop product and markets, and foster growth in rural Newfoundland and Labrador.
Why is it that Newfoundland and Labrador is not demanding what is just?
Why do we keep letting the feds off the hook?
Why are we allowing not only the continued loss of stocks but downsizing science, SAR, and other critical assets to this industry?
Why indeed!
Showing posts with label Northern Peninsula. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Northern Peninsula. Show all posts
Sunday, May 27, 2012
Monday, April 30, 2012
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.
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.
Monday, January 09, 2012
ICU - OCI - Will the media go after the Goods?
After listening to the public commentary of Martin Sullivan CEO of Ocean Choice - one could only be left with a feeling of sympathy for the owners.
The absolute hardship OCI is feeling is hard to fathom. The Hook Line and Sinker sob story that Martin portrayed was really tough to take without tears.
What is wrong with the people of our province - can't we see that the Sullivan's are like everybody else in the fishery? Can't we see the hardship this is causing them personally? They need a job too and they might be too old to be retrained. What about the value of their houses - in communities where the fishery is all but gone? Can't we see that they are under the same pressure as the plant workers in Marystown or the fishers with no fish?
Then there was this bit about them living up to their commitments to government - per their legal agreement for the FPI assets. Martin moaned and groaned about losses since 2007. Yes they must have had a clue that was going to happen when they bid on the assets and made commitments relative to plant operations. They also knew that they could ditch some of these obligations after a period of time or if they could prove financial hardship relative to them.
The investment decision was made based on all of that and they knew that some losses would be acceptable if the value of the overall netted them a profit.
Their interest in Newfoundland and Labrador does come after the interests in their corporation and they should not attempt to portray anything other than this.
More importantly than all of this is the following question which I trust will be asked by our local journalists:
Martin Sullivan stated that some information was asked for verbally and was delivered verbally - this outside information which was asked for in writing and delivered in writing. What was the information asked for verbally and what information was delivered verbally?
The absolute hardship OCI is feeling is hard to fathom. The Hook Line and Sinker sob story that Martin portrayed was really tough to take without tears.
What is wrong with the people of our province - can't we see that the Sullivan's are like everybody else in the fishery? Can't we see the hardship this is causing them personally? They need a job too and they might be too old to be retrained. What about the value of their houses - in communities where the fishery is all but gone? Can't we see that they are under the same pressure as the plant workers in Marystown or the fishers with no fish?
Then there was this bit about them living up to their commitments to government - per their legal agreement for the FPI assets. Martin moaned and groaned about losses since 2007. Yes they must have had a clue that was going to happen when they bid on the assets and made commitments relative to plant operations. They also knew that they could ditch some of these obligations after a period of time or if they could prove financial hardship relative to them.
The investment decision was made based on all of that and they knew that some losses would be acceptable if the value of the overall netted them a profit.
Their interest in Newfoundland and Labrador does come after the interests in their corporation and they should not attempt to portray anything other than this.
More importantly than all of this is the following question which I trust will be asked by our local journalists:
Martin Sullivan stated that some information was asked for verbally and was delivered verbally - this outside information which was asked for in writing and delivered in writing. What was the information asked for verbally and what information was delivered verbally?
Tuesday, November 01, 2011
Inept Politicians Responsible for kicking the Pride out of our People
It is true that I am opinionated - but unlike frenzied partisan zealots - my opinion is based on research.
The title of this post is no longer a matter of opinion - it is a fact.
How many of you have listened or read negative and quite often nasty comments made by Newfoundlanders and Labradorians regarding the fishery?
You know like "it's time we rationalized" - "time to stop the welfare" - "I am sick of hearing fishermen complaining"?
How sad - to hear our own people kick our own people - when they are NOT responsible for the fisheries disaster.
How sad to hear other people inflicted by unemployment caused by inept politicians turn on unemployed fishermen and plant workers instead of the inept politicians.
How utterly pathetic to hear inept politicians ponder how to cut the guts out of the fishery, entire communities and families rather than tackle Uncle Ottawa.
1. The fishery was mismanaged by the federal government.
2. That mismanagement costs this province 1 billion dollars annually.
3. The recovery expected by 2001 did not occur.
4. There has been NO compensation for the past decade meaning we have lost 10 billion dollars.
5. The federal government continues to diminish fisheries science rendering the resource and the industry dead.
6. Newfoundland and Labrador has lost over 40,000 people and rendered many communities bankrupt from this loss.
7. The fishery continues to be a bargaining chip for foreign trade without the benefits of such accruing to Newfoundland and Labrador.
8. The provincial government does not have the knowledge, the will, or the guts to do what is right.
9. Rationalization is a word used to cover up incompetence at both the federal and provincial levels.
10. Politicians are responsible for kicking the pride out of our people and for turning one Newfoundlander and Labradorian against another Newfoundlander and Labradorian.
The title of this post is no longer a matter of opinion - it is a fact.
How many of you have listened or read negative and quite often nasty comments made by Newfoundlanders and Labradorians regarding the fishery?
You know like "it's time we rationalized" - "time to stop the welfare" - "I am sick of hearing fishermen complaining"?
How sad - to hear our own people kick our own people - when they are NOT responsible for the fisheries disaster.
How sad to hear other people inflicted by unemployment caused by inept politicians turn on unemployed fishermen and plant workers instead of the inept politicians.
How utterly pathetic to hear inept politicians ponder how to cut the guts out of the fishery, entire communities and families rather than tackle Uncle Ottawa.
1. The fishery was mismanaged by the federal government.
2. That mismanagement costs this province 1 billion dollars annually.
3. The recovery expected by 2001 did not occur.
4. There has been NO compensation for the past decade meaning we have lost 10 billion dollars.
5. The federal government continues to diminish fisheries science rendering the resource and the industry dead.
6. Newfoundland and Labrador has lost over 40,000 people and rendered many communities bankrupt from this loss.
7. The fishery continues to be a bargaining chip for foreign trade without the benefits of such accruing to Newfoundland and Labrador.
8. The provincial government does not have the knowledge, the will, or the guts to do what is right.
9. Rationalization is a word used to cover up incompetence at both the federal and provincial levels.
10. Politicians are responsible for kicking the pride out of our people and for turning one Newfoundlander and Labradorian against another Newfoundlander and Labradorian.
Monday, October 17, 2011
Iceland's Fishery gets Thor - we get Harper and Dunderdale
Ahh to be free from the chains that bind us.
Below please read a story from FishUpdate Magazine published today.
THE Thor, Iceland's new super fishery protection ship, has begun the 14,000 mile journey from the shipyard in Chile, where it was built, to its new base near Reykjavik.
Sailing through the Panama Canal and calling at Boston in the United States and Halifax, Canada on the way she is expected to arrive in Iceland towards the end of the month.
The new Thor has been under construction since 2007 and will become the flagship of the Icelandic Coastguard's fishery protection which includes three other vessels, two helicopters and a surveillance aircraft.
The fleet's job is two-fold - to combat illegal fishing, along with general policing of the seas, and to provide a search and rescue service for fishing vessels that might get into difficulties. The Icelandic Coastguard - its motto is "Always Prepared" - was first established in the 1920s to monitor the country's fishing limits which were then just three miles from shore.
For veteran trawlermen in Grimsby, Hull and Aberdeen, the name "Thor" will have an older resonance. It was an earlier Iceland gunboat called the Thor which clashed with British trawlers and Royal Navy frigates during the cod wars of the 1970s. The gunboat would get in close to try to cut the nets of the British trawlers during a long series of fishing dispute. On one occasion it even opened fire on a British fishery support ship. After that episode the Royal Navy was called in to offer protection to the trawler fleet.
Iceland did offer Britain a 65,000 annual catch quota, but this was rejected by the UK fishing industry and the government (which included the then Foreign Secretary Anthony Crosland, who was also the MP for Grimsby) who wanted a 110,000 ton quota. The dispute ended in eventual defeat for British fishermen when Iceland won its fight for a 200 mile limit.
Saturday, August 11, 2007
Eliminate Low-Margin Products
I'm left to wonder - how I should take a message from an FPI News Release this week. If I'm a shareholder - and I'm not - I would be delighted. But if I'm involved in the fishery - the words would spell gloom and doom. I would be angry.
Beverly Evans - Chief Financial Officer - of FPI said this of the company's over 6 MILLION DOLLAR QUARTERLY PROFIT:
FPI's profits are up 3 1/2 MILLION DOLLARS from the same quarter last year.
Understand - that this news - while great for shareholders - is a reflection of human suffering in Newfoundland and Labrador. Communities in peril - fighting for their existence - people packing up and moving away before they lose everything.
When Beverly talks about eliminating low margin products - to you and me those products - in reality are people and communities. And all that to ensure that when Ches Penney - Nova Scotia and Iceland Corporates take over the company - they will not be the villains.
How do they all sleep at night? It's takes a special breed to fill your own arse pockets while you watch families and communities suffer. That is the mark of a "successful" business person - not necessarily a "good" one.
This is where the government of Newfoundland and Labrador had some control - had the ability to operate with a 2 million dollar profit instead of a 6 million dollar one. The shareholders should have been and should be the people of the Province - until some corporate entity would have accepted a couple of million a quarter - and communities and people (society) could have carried on.
You see this is not a swipe at the corporate elite - it is their swipe at us. The government neither has the vision nor the guts to do what's right. This will be another Williams' legacy.
Beverly Evans - Chief Financial Officer - of FPI said this of the company's over 6 MILLION DOLLAR QUARTERLY PROFIT:
"Profitability has improved through the execution of our strategy to eliminate low-margin products from our portfolio"
FPI's profits are up 3 1/2 MILLION DOLLARS from the same quarter last year.
Understand - that this news - while great for shareholders - is a reflection of human suffering in Newfoundland and Labrador. Communities in peril - fighting for their existence - people packing up and moving away before they lose everything.
When Beverly talks about eliminating low margin products - to you and me those products - in reality are people and communities. And all that to ensure that when Ches Penney - Nova Scotia and Iceland Corporates take over the company - they will not be the villains.
How do they all sleep at night? It's takes a special breed to fill your own arse pockets while you watch families and communities suffer. That is the mark of a "successful" business person - not necessarily a "good" one.
This is where the government of Newfoundland and Labrador had some control - had the ability to operate with a 2 million dollar profit instead of a 6 million dollar one. The shareholders should have been and should be the people of the Province - until some corporate entity would have accepted a couple of million a quarter - and communities and people (society) could have carried on.
You see this is not a swipe at the corporate elite - it is their swipe at us. The government neither has the vision nor the guts to do what's right. This will be another Williams' legacy.
Saturday, January 27, 2007
Norway's Minister of Foreign Affairs speaks Fish
Norway's Minister of Foreign Affairs speaks Fish to the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters during the 150th Anniversary Symposium “Politics and Law – Energy and Environment in the Far North” held two days ago.
First let's look at how Academics play a role in Norwegian Success. Minister Jonas Gahr Støre had this to say:
In my view, knowledge drives development. Knowledge made available to all drives societies and individuals towards freedom and more responsibility. Therefore, the creation of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters – Det norske Videnskaps-akademi – 150 years ago stands out as a major sign of progress – an important step towards Norway’s independence, towards the establishment of the rule of law in a democratic sovereign state, and even towards an awareness of the need to manage natural resources in a sustainable manner.
When it came to discussing fish - the Norwegian Minister demonstrates how that country has learned from Newfoundland and Labrador - are we really ready to learn from them? Minister Jonas Gahr Støre said this:
The depletion of important fish stocks is easily achieved, as we have repeatedly seen. In fact this phenomenon ranks among the leading threats not only to global ecosystems but also to our ability to feed a growing world population. Faced with the challenge of illegal fishing in the Barents Sea, it is as tempting as it is frightening to remind our audiences of the fate of the cod stocks in the waters off Newfoundland. We know this all too well: The restoration of fish stocks is not easily achieved.
To read the Complete Speech Press HERE
First let's look at how Academics play a role in Norwegian Success. Minister Jonas Gahr Støre had this to say:
In my view, knowledge drives development. Knowledge made available to all drives societies and individuals towards freedom and more responsibility. Therefore, the creation of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters – Det norske Videnskaps-akademi – 150 years ago stands out as a major sign of progress – an important step towards Norway’s independence, towards the establishment of the rule of law in a democratic sovereign state, and even towards an awareness of the need to manage natural resources in a sustainable manner.
When it came to discussing fish - the Norwegian Minister demonstrates how that country has learned from Newfoundland and Labrador - are we really ready to learn from them? Minister Jonas Gahr Støre said this:
The depletion of important fish stocks is easily achieved, as we have repeatedly seen. In fact this phenomenon ranks among the leading threats not only to global ecosystems but also to our ability to feed a growing world population. Faced with the challenge of illegal fishing in the Barents Sea, it is as tempting as it is frightening to remind our audiences of the fate of the cod stocks in the waters off Newfoundland. We know this all too well: The restoration of fish stocks is not easily achieved.
To read the Complete Speech Press HERE
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