Great. I'll pick up where I left off. I was starting to discuss the individual transferable quota structure and how that's impacted communities and new entrant fishermen in attempting to get into the fishery.
The ITQ structure's transferability has created a commodity out of the licensing, and as such has created a proprietary right. That has brought in people who are not engaged in the fishery but are looking to invest and are buying up licences as investment properties, driving the prices up to the point where those who are engaged in the fisheries are finding it very hard to actually access that licensing. In many cases, once that licensing is purchased, it's held.
We've noted over the last couple of years in the groundfish development authority that we are seeing quotas transferred over to foreign interests. We are no longer seeing Canadians purchase these licences. We are seeing them being bought by interests offshore. This is really beginning to concern many of us who are engaged in the industry, because once those quotas are divested, there is little likelihood in actually getting them back. It's a tough slog. As well, it drives the prices up to the point where young fishermen who are looking to access and enter the fishery are unable to. The cost is so prohibitive. That is something that should never be the case. The licensing should not outweigh the value of the fish that you catch with that licence.
As such, I believe that the transferability should be removed from that portion of the licensing regime so that we have a licence that remains with the fisherman and remains in the communities in some fashion. As I was saying, there are a number of ways to address this, I believe. One of them would be through an owner-operator principle and fleet separation. Both of these together would enable fishermen to maintain their position within the industry and limit the access of those who are not actually engaged in the fishery. I'd very much like to see the fishery back in the hands of those active harvesters who are out there and with community involvement through a co-management [Technical difficulty—Editor].
There are several reports I would like to bring to the attention of the committee that I think would be of great value to you to review and understand. The first of these is a report put out by Ecotrust Canada called “Understanding Values in Canada's North Pacific”. This takes a very good look at the tangible and intangible values that exist in the fishery for communities and a region.
The present structure really takes it out of the hands of communities and takes the people out of the communities as well. You have a great loss there. The fabric of many of our communities is built around the fishery structure. It's the co-operative manner that exists within the fisheries that brings our communities together and builds resilient and sustainable communities. We're losing that. We're seeing our communities' fabric dissolve, break apart. We no longer see the connectivity that existed between our communities previously. That is a grave concern for me and others. The owner-operator principle would again maintain that licensing within active fishing hands. Through fleet separation we would ensure that corporate interests are not holding licences and utilizing those in various ways to maintain access or opportunity, both of which tend to be detrimental for both communities and active, working fishermen.
Another report I'd like to suggest to you is one that was just released called “Just Transactions, Just Transitions”. It takes a very close look at how the impacts of ITQs have played out over the last few years within the Pacific region and the impacts on our communities from that regime.
As well, I'd like to draw your attention to some work that was done by Dr. Evelyn Pinkerton some years back called ”Fisheries that Work”. It's a very interesting document that provides a number of opportunities outside of the ITQ structure which addressed some of the issues that the department was addressing through the ITQs, but really in the end did not in my mind.
As well, there are a number of instances already actively functioning around us. We have in Canada itself the east coast fishery, which has become a very community-based fishery, with an owner-operator principle and a very strict fleet separation regime that ensures that active fishermen are the beneficiaries of the harvested product, as well as the communities that benefit from those fishermen who live in those communities. I think that would be an extremely important piece to look at and understand.
We also have a fishery north of us here in Alaska that we've looked to for a number of years for opportunities that we could develop here. They also have a very strict owner-operator principle and fleet separation with a real mind to community-based fisheries management structures that involve communities and fishermen locally. This very strong stewardship component is driven by that, as well as by the fishers who live in those regions. They have a real feeling for the fish and for the place and they understand it. You don't see that in absentee landlords in the ITQ structures, for the most part. We have a lot of people who are not engaged in a fishery holding these quotas as their revenue generator, and that is costing many of our fishermen upwards of 70% of the actual harvested value.
If you take a look at what's happening in Alaska and on the east coast of Canada in revenue returned to fish harvesters, it outstrips what we're seeing in British Columbia where we're seeing a reduction.