It will soon be one year since Nova Scotia MP Bernadette Jordan was sworn in as Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard.
“We’ve accomplished a lot in the past year,” said Minister Jordan in an interview with The Navigator. “From making sure harvesters are looked after during a difficult time to over 200 fisheries management decisions, launching new funds like the Ghost Gear Fund and the Canadian Fish and Seafood Stabilization Fund. It has been extremely busy.”
“I don’t think when any of us were first elected and appointed we expected we were going into a global pandemic,” said the Minister, adding “its been a great year” but also “a challenge running a department with 14,000 employees from my home through internet and cell phone.”
With COVID-19 playing economic havoc with virtually everything including the fishing industry, since last spring the federal government has spent “more than half a billion dollars in support of the industry,” said Jordan. “That’s actually more than we spent since the cod moratorium to make sure people are looked after.”
The $469.4-million Fish Harvester Benefit and Grant Program was open for applications from Aug. 24 through to Sept. 21.
“We wanted to make sure harvesters had what they needed,” said Jordan. “We knew it was going to be a particularly rough season with exports drying up and restaurants closing down.”
The Minister said from conversations with a number of harvesters she has spoken with from across Atlantic Canada, “they had a better season then they thought they were going to have but are very thankful to know the benefits are there if they do need to avail themselves of them. They got through this season. People did have a better season than they thought they were going to have, but we want to make sure if the next season they have the same challenges, we’re still there. We’re still going to be able to do everything we can to support the industry.”
Changes to fishers’ EI have also been made “to make sure they can get the maximum amount even if they have a bad season this year,” said Jordan, adding that “is also going to be extremely helpful.”
The $62.5-million Canadian Fish and Seafood Stabilization Fund was announced last spring for the fish and seafood processing sector to help increase storage capacity to deal with excess inventory.
With lobster primarily a live market, “we realized there was a real problem with capacity and storage, limited freezer and refrigeration… so we made funds available so industry could scale their facilities to address that concern,” said Jordan.
The Canadian Fish and Seafood Opportunities Fund has also been opened up for marketing seafood domestically, said Jordan.
The fund was “initially used to market our products when signing trade agreements with other countries but one of the things we realized during COVID-19 was that we need to make sure to market domestically so that fund is now available to organizations, businesses and associations who want to market their product in Canada, so there is money available there. I think it will help us get through this,” she said.
“I think one of the reasons harvesters didn’t have as bad a season as first thought is because Canadians stepped up,” said Jordan.
“Our communities made sure they were supporting our harvesters. That’s one of the things we seen right across the county. People are buying more locally. We need to promote that more and this fund is able to help with that.”
The Ghost Gear Fund “is one of my favorites,” said Jordan. “It’s making sure we’re getting the gear out of the water that was lost and by doing that we’re protecting eco-systems which is extremely important for the future.”
Fish stocks and fisheries management, Small Craft Harbours infrastructure and the Rural Economic Development Strategy released last year have also been on Minister Jordan’s radar since taking over the helm at DFO.
“One of the things we did with the new Fisheries Act is we put in legislation that have fisheries management plans to grow fisheries, to make sure that we put in place measures that we’re growing stock, not just a matter of conserving it or protecting it,” noted Jordan.
“We’re continuing to make decisions based on science, working with stakeholder groups, with people in the experimental fisheries, with Indigenous communities and industry to make sure those stocks are in great shape.”
Part of the Rural Economic Development Strategy “is making sure we are doing the most we can to use the ocean to drive our economy,” said Jordan. “Small Craft Harbours infrastructure is critical to that. I know that’s something we’re continuing to look at. Consistently over many years, not enough money went into Small Craft Harbours. I’m working very hard to change that.”
Jordan said the fisheries portfolio is “a very challenging field. There is never one right answer for everyone. As a coastal Canadian, growing up, my mom worked in the industry. I’ve lived in a coastal community pretty much my whole life. I know the value of the fishery and how important it is to make sure we continue to do everything we can to support our rural coastal communities. It’s important to me. It’s one of the reasons I got in politics. It’s a file that I’m very close to and really excited to see, once we’re out of COVID-19, how best to address concerns as we build back in a new way.”
