Good morning to the standing committee. Welcome to the Gaspé.
My name is Delphine Metallic. I'm Mi'gmaq from the community of Listuguj in the Gesgapegiag territory. As you know, Listuguj fishes under the inherent right to fish granted or reaffirmed through the Marshall decision. We fish in zone 12. This is our tenth year in the fishery. We are still new, still learning, and we still want to be included and be part of the resource management.
In the past 10 years since Listuguj gained access to the fishery, it has brought to our community a new hope, a new economy to some degree, and a new industry. We have many fishers and captains, and the whole community has benefited. The nature of our licences is communal so the whole community benefits; not just one fisher or two fishers have benefited. Our whole community has benefited from this small craft fishery.
The recent cuts have dramatically affected our community, which is already economically depressed. I don't have to get into the realities of first nation communities, where there are no viable economic opportunities. A fishery like this brought a lot of hope.
We believed the fishery was being managed properly. We moved from a fixed quota to a percentage quota. We see now that the drastic decline from the biomass could have resulted in mismanagement of the fishery. This causes us great concern. We need immediate and sustainable measures to address this urgency that we are faced with. Solutions should be collaborative and inclusive.
I will just give you an idea of how the dramatic decline in the TAC has affected our community with the loss of jobs, as in the rest of the areas that are impacted. There is the loss of the profits that were turned back into the community to fund underfunded projects, which are chronically underfunded, as we know. We also utilized the profits gained from the fishery for employability measures in our community to help people rise above poverty levels, but they continue.... It's a very difficult situation.
Listuguj Mi'gmaq's main concern is the continued survival of the species. We are prepared to work collaboratively with stakeholders and government officials to find workable and sustainable solutions. Any objectives of a strategy should include the continued survival of the species and should also include the Mi'gmaqs on resource management, with meaningful involvement.
I speak here today only for Listuguj, just for my community, not all Mi'gmaqs. We are committed to ensure that objectives are met through consultations with the government, stakeholders, user groups, and other interested groups, and the continued involvement of all our community members at all levels.
In the past, we have engaged in other resource management efforts involving the community at large to develop, to manage, and to monitor. This has proven to be successful. We are committed to ensuring sustainability and are concerned, as I mentioned, with the survival of the species.
We need to develop a Mi'gmaq governance working group that would ensure a sustainable snow crab harvesting plant with Mi'gmaq involvement. As somebody mentioned earlier, decisions are made too far away, without the awareness of what goes on at a local level.
We should create a constitutionally protected rights-based fishery under section 35. We understand that this will take time and financial resources.
Listuguj is committed and ready to move solidly towards the development of a fishery that is sustainable and that will continue for generations to come. It's important that we preserve the stock so that our children and grandchildren will benefit.
We are only at the beginning of fully exercising our Mi'gmaq inherent right to fish. With access through Marshall, we now have an opportunity to fully implement treaty negotiations. Full implementation and full participation in the Gulf small craft fishery require capacity building and progress.
Listuguj has demonstrated that it can manage. For example, our salmon management plan has been utilized for over 25 years. We are looking to create sustainable solutions to help address the situation.
Thank you.