Government committed to crab sharing offer

The Government of Newfoundland and Labrador is standing by its offer of a modified sharing system for the crab fishery.

"We stand by our April 29 offer to reduce the length of the sharing pilot project to one year," says Trevor Taylor, Minister of Fisheries and Aquaculture. "We stand by our commitment to establish a monitoring committee to oversee the sharing project�s implementation. A team of harvester, fish plant worker, government, and processor representatives will gather information about the strengths and weaknesses of the system. At the end of the fishing season, the committee chair will recommend how to proceed for 2006. That chair, as announced on May 10, will be Richard Cashin, the former head of the Fish, Food and Allied Workers. Let there be no mistake. The Government of Newfoundland and Labrador made this commitment, and we stand by it."

Minister Taylor believes that the involvement of Mr. Cashin will help ensure that industry views are reflected in the assessment of what is essentially a three-month pilot project.

"Richard Cashin is widely trusted as an impartial person with an intimate knowledge of the fishing industry and its role in rural Newfoundland and Labrador. As chair, he will be tasked with steering, evaluating, and ultimately either accepting, adjusting, or rejecting a sharing system," says the minister. "We did not take the decision to introduce a pilot project in resource sharing lightly and we all want to get a fishery going as soon as possible. But it's unfortunate that, based on some of their recent comments, members on the opposite side of the House of Assembly would rather play politics than see a stronger fishing industry and more stable rural economies."

The Raw Material Sharing (RMS) system is the latest effort by the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador to strengthen the province's fishing industry by following the recommendations of the Fish Processing Review Commission (Dunne Report). Previous policy changes have included hiring more inspectors, eliminating unused fish processing licences, and making the licence decision-making process more open, transparent, and accountable.

Media contact: Alex Marland, Communications (709) 729-3733, 690-6047

2005 05 17                                 4:45 p.m.