Fishing has always been hard work in a challenging environment, and harvesters did not always earn good incomes. But over many years, harvester organizations have worked diligently to conserve and protect our fish stocks, to improve safety practices and to put in place a co-management system that gives harvesters a strong voice in decision-making and a stake in the overall success of our industry.
In the Atlantic region, the owner-operator and fleet separation policies have largely kept control over the rights to harvest adjacent fish stocks in the hands of independent, community-based small businesses. As a direct result, the decade-long surge in global demand for our seafood products has brought solid, middle-class incomes and a new sense of optimism to our communities. We still face challenges to manage our fisheries sustainably and to renew an aging labour force, but we do so with the knowledge that our industry now has a bright future.
Most people attribute the current growth in our east coast fishing economy to lobster, but we are seeing a general improvement in economic returns across all fisheries. DFO data reveal that in the decade after the great recession in Atlantic fisheries, the landed value per tonne of lobster increased by 17%, but groundfish and total shellfish grew close to 70% and pelagic species by 128%. In Atlantic Canada we are seeing a rising market tide that seems to be lifting all boats.
Our members from British Columbia are also seeing increased landed value per tonne in their fisheries, but not to the same extent. There is a strong increase in shellfish, but only limited gains in groundfish and pelagics.
There is, of course, a different species mix in Pacific fisheries, but industry structure also plays a role. Landed value reflects prices paid at the landing site, not necessarily the final value in the marketplace. The people doing the fishing on the water may receive only a fraction of landed value, depending on who owns the licence or quota they are fishing. As well, vertical integration gives companies much greater leverage to suppress the price of fish to the harvesters and to transfer profit-taking to higher levels in the value chain.
The consequences are evident when we compare trends in incomes for fish harvesters. The period since 2000 has seen a steady increase in earnings from fishing employment in most regions of Canada. In 2015, fish harvesters and owner-operator enterprises in Atlantic Canada and Quebec earned incomes comparable to the Canadian workforce, despite the seasonal nature of the fishery.
In British Columbia in 2000, fish harvesters had average incomes well above their peers in the Atlantic; however, by 2015, average after-inflation earnings had fallen by 29% despite generally stable landings and improvements in landed values. Coming out of the 2007-2009 recession, self-employed harvesters in B.C. did see some uptick in after-inflation incomes, but not nearly as much as in the Atlantic provinces.
We see these disparities as a direct consequence of current licensing policies in Pacific region that encourage vertical integration and licence and quota leasing, allowing control of access rights by non-harvesters and forcing active harvesters to pay excessive costs to lease licences and quota to maintain their fishing operations.
The direct consequence is that too many enterprise operators who work on the water and take the financial risks to buy and maintain vessels and gear and to hire and train crew are receiving too small a share of revenues to remain viable, and coastal communities receive less and less economic and social benefit from adjacent marine resources.
It is no wonder that the fishing workforce in British Columbia is the oldest in the country, with falling rates of youth recruitment. An industry offering these career prospects will have great difficulty replacing the 40% of the labour force that is projected to retire out of the industry by 2025.
In holding these hearings, the committee has taken the first step to addressing the sharp disparities between fisheries on Canada's east and west coasts. The critically important task now is to propose changes in DFO licensing policies so that fish harvesters in British Columbia can receive a fairer share of the wealth they produce and that they do benefit from the rapid growth in global seafood markets.
The main message the federation wants to convey today is that after some 30 years of being in effect, the owner-operator and fleet separation policies have created a competitive, economically dynamic and sustainable fishing industry in Atlantic Canada. There are continuing challenges, but the foundations are in place for an industry that can sustain vital coastal and indigenous communities into the future with stable and rewarding employment and solid, middle-class incomes.
As a national organization representing fish harvesters in all regions of Canada, we want to see the same positive future for coastal communities in British Columbia. We urge this committee to recommend to the DFO minister that he initiate a process in concert with industry, community and indigenous stakeholders to develop a new licensing model based on owner-operator and fleet separation principles and adapted to fisheries in the Pacific region.
In my brief that was sent around, I've included a list of our membership so that you can see how varied it is across the country.
I want to thank you for the opportunity to appear here today.
