The following statement was given today in the House of Assembly by the Honourable Derrick Dalley, Minister of Fisheries and Aquaculture:

Success of Sealing Industry Continues to Grow

Mr. Speaker, I rise in this Honourable House to provide an update about the tremendous success of the sealing industry this year. Approximately 90,000 seals will be harvested by the end of the season, which represents an increase of approximately 30 per cent over the 69,000 seals that were harvested in 2012. This shows how our ongoing partnership with industry is creating benefits for licensed sealers and promoting sealing activity.

Mr. Speaker, investments in advocacy and industry development have been ongoing since 2006, and to date have totalled $900,000. With these investments we have supported communications campaigns that counter anti-sealing propaganda with facts about the economic, cultural, and ecological benefits of the harvest. We have supported seal marketing initiatives to gain greater access to international markets such as China. We have enhanced professionalization activities for the industry, which has included training sealers in the humane harvesting of seals using a process approved by veterinarians. Mr. Speaker, we have also supported actions taken by the sealing industry, Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, and other provincial, federal and territorial governments to overturn the seal products ban that was put in effect by the European Union.

In addition, this government also recently announced another repayable loan of $3.6 million to Carino Processing Limited. This loan provided inventory financing so that the company could purchase seal pelts and blubber, which in turn secured income for hundreds of sealers and plant workers. This investment also created economic spin-offs with respect to transportation, industrial supplies, and professional services. Our success with this financing arrangement continues from last year, when the loan we provided to Carino was repaid in full, with interest, and was used to create a total economic benefit of $4.5 million.

Mr. Speaker, our sealing industry continues to produce high quality products for the fashion, pharmaceutical, and food industries, and these products are in demand throughout the world. The production value of sealing has been as high as $55 million annually, and this government remains committed to working with the industry to grow that economic success for the benefit of harvesters and their communities.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

2013 05 16                             1:50 p.m.