Premier reports progress on issues since meeting of fishing industry stakeholders

Last week�s meeting of fishery and other stakeholders laid a solid foundation to address issues facing the fishing industry in the province. Today, Premier Danny Williams met with a smaller group of stakeholders to further discuss the challenges in terms of markets and marketing of the province�s seafood products. Tom Rideout, Minister of Fisheries and Aquaculture and Trevor Taylor, Minister of Transportation and Works and Acting Minister of Innovation, Trade and Rural Development, also participated in the meeting with representatives of the union, harvesting and processing sectors. Federal and provincial government officials also attended the meeting.

"Last week there was widespread support around the table for the need to have some type of coordinated marketing approach, whereby industry players co-operated so that Newfoundland and Labrador seafood is marketed in a more integrated and strategic manner," said Premier Williams. "We committed last week to reconvene a smaller group immediately to discuss this issue and today we made some progress in terms of options on how to proceed on this front. Obviously the issues are complex and solutions will not be found overnight, so we agreed to develop a working paper and reconvene within a week."

Premier Williams acknowledged that marketing is only one of the issues facing the fishery in the province. In addition to external factors such as the weak American dollar and international competition, overcapacity in the industry in both the harvesting and processing sectors was widely identified at the meeting last week. These structural issues must also be addressed. While today�s meeting was designed specifically to deal with marketing issues, the Premier reported that progress is also being made on the other key challenges.

"I met with Minister Hearn on Friday past to discuss a go-forward approach coming out of our broad-based meeting," added the Premier. "Everyone recognized the value of our meeting with stakeholders and both Minister Hearn and I are determined not to lose momentum. As such, we have established a working group of federal and provincial officials to begin work on a renewal strategy for the fishery. This includes continued dialogue and consultation with all stakeholders. This group will convene a meeting next week with a view to reporting back by mid-summer."

The federal-provincial group will continue to meet with stakeholders, and will focus on identifying solutions to issues including: marketing; processing and harvesting restructuring; and technological issues and new opportunities in the fishery.

Minister Rideout indicated he is very pleased with the work now underway, and looks forward to hearing back from the working group. "The summer is obviously a difficult time to do this work, as most industry people are hard at work. However, we recognize that we must build on the momentum coming out of last week�s meeting, and get to work on these issues which must be addressed if we are to see a renewal of the fishery in Newfoundland and Labrador. There is a tremendous opportunity before us to work co-operatively and to develop an integrated approach to our fishery. The people of the province are counting on us to work together and we cannot let them down."

On Wednesday, May 24, 2006, Premier Williams convened a meeting of more than 70 stakeholders in an effort to develop an integrated approach to managing the province�s fishery.

Media contact:

Elizabeth Matthews, Office of the Premier, (709) 729-3960 or 690-5500, elizabethmatthews@gov.nl.ca
Lori Lee Oates, Fisheries and Aquaculture, (709)729-3733 or 690-8403 

2005 05 31                           1:40 p.m.