The moratorium on the issuance of new licences for fish buying and processing in Nova Scotia could soon be lifted.
“We’re probably going to take legislation to the legislature this fall around that,” said Nova Scotia Fisheries and Aquaculture Minister Keith Colwell in an interview.
A licensing policy review, initiated after concerns were expressed by industry over a number of things including grandfathered licenses and what are commonly referred to as bingo card licences, has been underway for more than a year. The policy review is also looking at the rules and could result in changes to the provincial Fisheries Act.
It’s going to be a pretty innocuous bill,” said Colwell. “We’re going to change some descriptions and everything we do in licencing will be changed to regulations. That way we can adapt as the industry does over time.”
One change that is coming is the province will soon be making it necessary for those in the industry who hold lobsters licenses “will have to do it to the quality standard we have in place and are going to have to be audited for it,” said Minister Colwell.
“Under the Atlantic Fisheries Fund, we’ve found a way, I think, to help them offset the cost of doing that for their facility, new or expanded. It’s going to change our marketing and should put the price of lobsters in the export market up, if we do this right.”
Colwell said the department has been working very closely with the industry on that and are very happy with feedback they are getting.
The department has been working closely with industry throughout the licence policy review.
“They initiated the whole process with us. It’s been a nice cooperative effort that has not happened in the province probably ever,” said Colwell.
According to the Nova Scotia Open Data Portal, there are currently 242 fish processing licences in the province, and 330 fish buyers’ licences, all species.
As it turned out, grandfathered licences, which have been issued to all kinds of people “by different ministers and different governments over many years” are “illegal,” Colwell said earlier this year in an interview with The Navigator.
“We don’t have the legislative authority to do it. Everyone sitting on a grandfathered licence all that time thought there was value in it. There isn’t. There’s no such thing as a grandfathered licence. We didn’t know that until just recently,” adding it hasn’t been decided what is going to be done with the situation.
As for the bingo card licenses, “a lot of people will fill in every licence and check off all the boxes and don’t even have the capability of processing that product,” said Colwell earlier this year.
“What happens with that? Say there’s 200 licences out there to process (a species) and somebody does a lot of work around marketing and product development to get the highest value which is really, really expensive and time consuming and finally get a product… everybody with the bingo card that never did any of the work, don’t even have the equipment to process it, stands to benefit. Industry is afraid to make investments and I don’t disagree with them,” said Colwell.
“We’re talking hundreds of thousands of dollars, even millions, to get a product ready and in the market before making any money so it’s not fair to them to have that lurking over their shoulder as they’re working at it.”
The policy review is also looking at the rules, which haven’t changed since the early 90s.
“Industry has changed,” said Colwell. “There’s a lot more automation. A lot more requirements in the marketplace. All kinds of things that have come into effect that the (Fisheries) Act and regulations have not truly reflected to help the industry be more productive and at the end of day deliver a high-quality product (that) we can get maximum value out of it.”
