Thank you, Mr. Chair and members of Parliament on the fisheries panel and, of course, staff.
Kwe. Good afternoon. Thank you for inviting me to speak with you today regarding COVID-19's impact on our community.
Today I am with you from my community of Membertou, where I've been the elected chief for 36 years. I also serve as the lead for fisheries with the Assembly of Nova Scotia Mi'kmaw Chiefs.
In my time leading our community of Membertou, we have been through a great deal of struggle surrounding our rights, but I have also had the opportunity to be part of new opportunities within the fishery. One that I am particularly proud of is how our Membertou fishery has been built and has grown under our community's leadership.
With the sudden threat of COVID-19 forcing closures in many of our operations in Membertou in March, we took action to create emergency operation plans and an emergency COVID-19 budget.
For the Membertou Development Corporation, of which I am the CEO, our revenue last year was $67 million. Our fishery operation accounts for $3 million of that total number. Due to our loss of business we initially projected $13 million to $14 million in lost revenue in our total COVID-19 emergency budget.
Due to low prices and reduced catches imposed by our buyers as well as buyers placing daily limits on our lobster, we anticipate that $900,000 to $1 million of our overall loss will be within our fishery. Shrimp prices, as has been mentioned before, are very low, and we are anticipating a 60% loss of that revenue due to lack of markets.
We were incredibly pleased to see our fishers move forward with the fishery this season, given the magnitude of what has taken place over the last three months in our country and around the world.
When we put our boats in the water this season, we already knew we would come up short, but we knew that for the sustainability of our community and our fishers we needed to go fishing. Our season is still in process and our quotas are being caught; however, we're losing one-third of our annual profit due to the low prices this season and the late season start, as was mentioned before.
Here in Cape Breton, Onamagi, crab is selling for $3.50 a pound when last year it was valued at between $5.75 and six dollars. Our lobsters are selling for $4.35 a pound instead of their usual six dollars and up. These numbers have fluctuated and continue to do so.
Aside from the financial impacts of COVID-19, there have been many social implications as well. Our communities have been deemed higher risk for the virus and, therefore, we've taken great steps to protect our people, especially our elders. Many of our fishers had to make difficult decisions on whether they would go out on the water this season and risk bringing home the virus. If they didn't go, they risked not making a living for their families.
We stepped up to do our very best to protect our fishers and supplied them with PPE like sanitizers, forehead thermometers, gloves and other safety equipment. This was at a cost of more than $5,000 to begin the season.
Our fishery department employs 50 people. We have four crab crews made up of six crew members each and six lobster crews of four fishers each. These are well-paying jobs for our community, and the majority of our fishers are grateful for the opportunity to be working during this pandemic.
Throughout the course of the pandemic we've been in touch with our political representatives on all levels to come to the table with us and understand the significant financial loss that we will be facing this season, nearly $1 million in fisheries loss alone.
Our community of Membertou and the other Mi'kmaq communities across Nova Scotia need support from our government to help alleviate the overall loss to our communities. Revenue generated within our communities supports other aspects of the community, including education, social aspects and health.
I understand that in being here with you today you're looking to compile this information, and I hope that very soon we can come back together to talk about opportunities to support our fishery at the time of our great loss.
Wela'lioq. Thank you.