Thank you, Madam Chair, for the opportunity to present today in front of the Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans.
My name is Bernie Berry, and I am President of the Coldwater Lobster Association, which is located in southwest Nova Scotia. Our association represents lobster fishermen who ply their trade in lobster fishing area, LFA, 34.
LFA 34 is the most lucrative lobster fishing area in Canada. LFA 34 has approximately 970 licence holders, and the landings for the 2016-17 season hover around 50 million pounds. Landed value is in the range of $350 million to $370 million, and this fishery is MSC-approved as are all Canadian lobster fisheries.
The lobster fishery in southwest Nova Scotia is the main economic influence on the economy in the region. The strength of the lobster fishery in southwest Nova Scotia comes from the fact that the vast majority of licence holders are independent. This leads to the spreading and sharing of the wealth that is harvested from the sea. The stock is very strong and plentiful because of the stewardship that fishermen have demonstrated over time.
For these fishermen, and the communities they support, continued independence of the fishermen is a must. The lobster licences must remain in the control of these small independent business owners, the fishermen themselves. This will allow for the continued success, not only of the lobster fishery but also of the rural communities. The licences must remain independent to support the next generation of lobster fishermen, and to allow them to have the opportunity to continue the success of the previous licence holders.
Coldwater Lobster Association believes one avenue to achieve this is through the Fisheries Act. The owner-operator, fleet separation, and PIIFCAF, the acronym for preserving the independence of the inshore fleet in Canada's Atlantic fisheries, could and would be enhanced by making all these policies part of the regulatory regime and/or a condition of licence.
The result of an initiative like this would be the elimination of corporate infiltration into the lobster sector. The policies would now be regulations, and the penalties could be more substantial and applied in a timelier fashion for the instigators trying to circumvent the regulations. If properly designed and installed as a regulation, decisions could be made on a case-by-case basis at a regional level, and possibly an area level of DFO enforcement.
An area that is not covered very well in the Fisheries Act is the potential of foreign ownership of fishing licences and fish-buying licences. As the rule now applies, companies that have Canadian fish-buying licences for various species of fish must be 51% Canadian owned and controlled.
Unfortunately, this is not monitored or overseen very closely, and any good law firm can disguise the true ownership of these companies. This leads to foreign control, not only of a company but the quota and access to numerous Canadian fish stocks. The profits and benefits from a Canadian public resource are siphoned off to individuals and boardrooms abroad.
Coldwater Lobster Association believes that the benefits of fishing licences should flow to the harvesters who hold the licences and also to their coastal communities. The product caught by the fishermen, once on land, should also be used to enhance the economic viability of these rural communities.
A problem that is not being addressed is the generational turnover of fishing licences to a new set of young entrepreneurs. The main difficulty that is being encountered by the potential new independent licence holders is obtaining financing.
With the success of the present independent licence holders, the value of fishing licences has increased substantially in the last couple of decades. The average age of lobster licence holders in LFA 34 is approximately 55. Almost half the licences in LFA 34 will possibly change hands in the next 10 years for various reasons. The new entrant needs financial help in acquiring these valuable lobster licences to kick-start their career as a new entrepreneur in the community.
Coldwater Lobster Association believes that in order to have a smooth transition into the next generation of fishermen, it will take a collaborative approach from the federal government and some of its departments, such as ACOA, DFO, Industry Canada, the provincial government through its fisheries loan board, and chartered banks along with the industry itself to come forth with a suite of options for the new entrant to choose from to obtain financing.
Any type of backlog or slowing of this transition from the older generation to the new independent small business owner will have a dampening economic effect on the industry and the communities it supports.
Coldwater Lobster Association appreciates the time the committee has afforded our organization to speak on this very important issue, and we hope to be back in the future, because the lobster fishery is evolving quickly and there are numerous challenges ahead that will need to be discussed with all involved.
Thank you again.