Thank you very much, Mr. Chair, and thank you very much to the committee for providing us this opportunity and for taking a look at what is a very serious issue on the Pacific coast.
Over the last 30 years, the policies of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans Pacific region have essentially alienated communities in coastal B.C. from the resource base on their front step. They have created sharecroppers out of working fishermen and have put hundreds of shoreworkers on the streets, if not thousands. Is this the picture that the Canadian public would wish to see painted of its common property resource?
Over the last five years, I've had both the honour and the privilege of working with commercial fishermen in conducting significant interviews with regard to several projects that both T. Buck Suzuki and Ecotrust Canada have been involved in. I would like at this time to bring to the attention of the committee two documents. The first report is on values in the North Pacific fishery and takes a look at both the tangible and intangible values of the fisheries for the communities in the region. The second document is “Caught Up in Catch Shares”, which is a fairly in-depth look at the ITQ structure and what that has essentially fostered on the Pacific coast.
Communities have put an immense amount of effort into providing infrastructure to a lot of the plants and facilities that exist within their communities. That is being lost. The fishery itself provides a whole pile of intangible values aside from the straight economic dollar in-dollar out structure. Those values are what create the fabric of our communities.
As these policies have unravelled those fabrics, our communities have continued to shrink and, in many respects, to virtually shut down. We have communities that have gone from 85% employment to 85% unemployment.