NDP asks Shea to move fisheries department out of Ottawa

By Wayne Thibodeau

FOR THE SOU’WESTER

Transcontinental Media/The Guardian

Fisheries Minister Gail Shea would be wise to relocate the headquarters for the Department of Fisheries and Oceans outside of Ottawa, says Peter Stoffer, the NDP’s fisheries critic.

Stoffer said it should be part of a major overhaul of the department, which he said with 17 different branches is too large and out of touch with what is happening on Canadian waters. He also wants to see the Canadian Coast Guard moved out of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans and into Public Safety, and the aquaculture division moved to the Department of Agriculture.

The fisheries critic made his comments during a news conference in Charlottetown on Nov. 6.

Stoffer said the Department of Veterans Affairs, which has its national headquarters in Charlottetown, is a prime example that federal government departments do not have to be located in Ottawa. He said the headquarters should be divided into offices on the East and West coasts as well as a central office, which would focus on the north. “(Fisheries and Oceans) management should move to where the resources are,” said Stoffer, adding it was also recommended by an all-party committee of the House of Commons in 1999. “(There are) 1,600 people working for the department, on 15-floors in Ottawa. The first 13 floors the average public can get to after your security check. But the next two there is a separate elevator to the minister’s office. “I could get to Obama quicker than I can get to Gail Shea.”

The NDP held its news conference in Prince Edward Island to outline its concerns about the future of the Canadian fishery because Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s newly minted fisheries minister is from the Island.

Shea is the MP for Egmont, the minister responsible for Prince Edward Island, as well as minister of Fisheries and Oceans.

Stoffer admits Shea has been handed one of the most difficult jobs in the country. “I’ll be the first one to admit being the fisheries minister is probably one of the toughest jobs in the House of Commons. You cannot please everybody, especially people like me,” Stoffer added.

The NDP is also calling on the federal government to extend the custodial management over the nose and tail of the Grand Banks and the Flemish Cap.

This was a promise that the Conservative party made in 2006 but has not been implemented, he said.

A long-standing call by P.E.I. fishermen for a lobster licence buy-back program is also being supported by the NDP. Fishermen say too many of them are trying to catch too few lobster.

Shea herself supported a lobster buy-back program during the federal election campaign, but it was not an election promise by the Conservatives. The Liberal party did promise a lobster licence buy-back program.

These fishermen who wish to exit the industry, it must be done in a humane way and in a financial manner where they can leave the industry with dignity, he said.

Stoffer said it’s also time to overhaul the Fisheries Act, the oldest piece of legislation in Canada, dating back to 1867.

But Stoffer said changes should only be made in consultation with fishermen, and that the department should move to a community-based, co-operative and co-management approach.

An Ottawa centered approach to fisheries management does not work, he said.

We must move towards a management style where communities and local fishermen play an important role.