The Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) has withdrawn an allocation of 25 per cent of the Arctic surf clam quota from the small New Brunswick First Nation that won the award.
It has also pledged to work with existing sole license holder, Clearwater Seafoods, to ensure that the unallocated quota can be used to support income and livelihoods of plant and vessel workers this year. This is welcome news to Newfoundland and Labrador.
In an unheralded announcement, DFO said “the current process to issue a fourth Arctic surf clam license was cancelled in early July and the reasons subsequently shared with the Five Nations Clam Company. A new Arctic surf clam licence will not be issued in 2018.”
Several things appear to have happened here.
First, Clearwater never wavered in its opposition to what came to be seen as a potentially flawed process. Although a number of indigenous groups bid on the license, the award went to a small company, that at the time of its application, did not have the requisite first nation ownership.
After the award was made, Five Nations Clam company scrambled to bring indigenous groups on board.
Secondly, the award was made to a group with close personal ties to the former fisheries minister, Dominic LeBlanc, including people from his own district, or riding.
The combination of failure to meet the ostensible requirements and the suggestion that the award was based on patronage aroused fury in N.L.
Clearwater operates one of the few year-round fish plants in Canada in Grand Bank and the loss of 25 per cent of the quota to a partner who was unable to perform or co-operate meant less jobs and income in the province.
At the end of June, John Risley, Chairman of Clearwater, indicated that backroom discussions were underway to resolve the situation and he was remarkably reluctant to continue blasting the DFO during a trip to Newfoundland.
In July, Dominic LeBlanc was removed as fisheries minister and replaced by Jonathan Wilkinson, from B.C. It was the first time in nearly 20 years that the Canadian fisheries minister was not from Atlantic Canada.
Once again, it appeared that the interests of Newfoundland were getting slighted by Ottawa.
Speaking shortly after his appointment, Wilkinson said that there were no plans to revisit the surf clam decision “at this stage.”
However, a conflict of interest investigation was already underway.
In April, court documents showed that Five Nations was only 25 per cent indigenous owned and critics said LeBlanc had personal ties to the winning bidder, with Conservative fisheries critic Tom Doherty suggesting LeBlanc’s wife had a financial stake in the winning bidder.
Based on the DFO statement that Five Nations was notified in early July that its license would not be issued, it seems like Wilkinson was carefully hedging his language.
Wilkinson and Risley have now put their stamp on a totally different process.
The DFO announcement said that first, “the remaining 25 per cent of the 2018 total allowable catch (TAC) may be made available following discussions with the current licence holder. This would allow for the economic benefits to remain in coastal communities while Fisheries and Oceans Canada continues to work to broaden access to this fishery.”
And secondly “in order to move forward on implementing enhanced access and promoting reconciliation, we will be launching a new expression of interest process to identify a holder for the fourth license for this fishery in the spring of 2019, so that the participant can begin fishing the new license in 2020. An independent third-party will evaluate the submissions and make recommendations to Fisheries and Oceans Canada.”
The commitment to an independent review is a victory for Clearwater, who has recently invested millions of dollars in a new clam vessel. Several of the proposals rejected by DFO would have made use of Clearwater’s marketing structure.
Monopoly is a significant advantage in the seafood industry and the Arctic surf clam market retains a higher value to Canada due to the ability of Clearwater to maximize its market prices.
In Alaska, native communities have been able to gain significant economic value by partnering with existing quota holders to maintain markets, rather than compete with them for customers.
Clearwater is likely hoping that a similar development will take place in Canada, where the inclusion of indigenous owners and the granting of a surf clam license leads to shared economic value, but not the erosion of existing markets that could come from two Canadian companies competing for the same customers.
Such economic considerations as to how to attain the highest value for indigenous partners will now likely be part of the review.
And considerations of the economic impact in Newfoundland will be very much on the table.
For John Risley and surf clams, it is game, set and match.
The company is likely to continue to be able to harvest the quota in 2018 and 2019 and the new award will be made for the 2020 season.
But the whole issue was disastrously mishandled from the beginning and hopefully this experience will lead DFO to bring in industry stakeholders as partners in creating fisheries opportunities for first nations, instead of setting them up as adversaries.
The Miawpukek First Nation located on the south coast of Newfoundland says they applaud the reopening of the issue of an Arctic surf clam license for indigenous peoples and will try again to secure the license under the new procedure announced by DFO.
“Ottawa’s announcement to cancel a recent clam license decision is a fitting end to a move that would have given virtually 100 per cent of a Newfoundland and Labrador resource to stakeholders outside this province,” says Chief Misel Joe of the Miawpukek First Nation in Conne River.
“What is missing from this whole debate,” says Chief Joe “is that local processing is important but it’s only a small part of the issue. First and foremost is the fact that the clam resource is immediately adjacent to Newfoundland on the Grand Banks, as well as off the south coast of Newfoundland and that access to this resource, unless our politicians take a different approach from what was taken in the last call for expressions of interest, may go to an entity outside the province.”
Miawpukek First Nation previously partnered with the other First Nations in Newfoundland and Labrador, Qalipu Mi’kmaq First Nation and the Innu Nation of Labrador, to form FN-NL which applied for the Arctic surf clam license in 2017.
This article was republished with permission of John Sackton and seafood.com.
