MOU Still On Track - NL Fish Minister

“Our province’s fishing industry is overcapitalized and having great difficulty in light of the global economic challenges of the last two years,” said Jackman. “However, there are structural issues within the industry and we can see the impact of those annually. We will continue to have them until there is a new industry structure in place. The MOU process was designed to provide proposals from the participants for addressing these issues. It is important that the parties develop joint proposals that offer reasonable and practical solutions which will encourage Federal Government support of the restructuring process.”

The FFAW and the Association of Seafood Producers have been developing proposals through working groups and a steering committee that is chaired by Professor Tom Clift of Memorial University’s School of Business. There are working groups on harvesting, processing and seafood marketing.

Financial assessments of the harvesting and processing sectors have been carried out. This information is being used to assist the harvesting and processing sector working groups in considering options for restructuring of the industry. The working groups have been extremely active in recent weeks to ensure timely completion of their analysis.

The marketing working group is exploring options for more collaborative sales and marketing efforts. A workshop is planned to help the working group identify key issues, requirements and criteria to establish seafood marketing entities in the province’s fishing industry. International seafood marketing experts from other jurisdictions will be invited to share their experiences and perspectives on seafood sales consortiums. This will include representatives from Iceland, Norway and Alaska.

The working groups will finalize their analysis over the next month. Their work will then be presented to the steering committee. The committee will develop recommendations to submit to the minister through a report that will be completed by Professor Clift, and submitted in September.

“The report should reflect a collective, unified response on behalf of the participants in the MOU process. We are seeking a series of recommendations that the Federal Government will seriously consider and support. It is extremely important that we now start working toward achieving appropriate solutions for the 2011 fishery,” says Jackman.

The recommendations of the steering committee will be used to provide recommendations to the Federal Government for addressing areas of restructuring that fall within federal jurisdiction.

Jackman will meet with Gail Shea, Federal Minister of Fisheries and Oceans, in Prince Edward Island on Friday, July 16. The ministers will discuss a number of items including the province’s recent announcement on fisheries science and the restructuring of the Newfoundland and Labrador fishing industry.