Strong uptake on low-interest loan program

By Andy Walker

SOU’WESTER

A low interest loan program for lobster fishermen introduced earlier this year has proven to be popular for fishermen on the south side of P.E.I.

Faced with the double challenge of declining catches and rising input costs for the past several seasons, the program is geared to both fall and spring fishermen on the Island’s south shore.

The province and the P.E.I. Fishermen’s Association have been trying to convince Ottawa to institute a licence rationalization program for the fall fishery, but the idea has so far met an unfavourable response.

Fisheries, Aquaculture and Rural Development Minister Allan Campbell said 136 loans have been approved so far with another 19 still pending at the P.E.I. Lending Agency. Three loans have been converted at conventional lending rates.

"There’s been a total of approximately $18 million in consolidated fishermen’s debt to help deal with the situation in the Northumberland Strait," Campbell told the legislature recently.

He said the program is unique in the country and "the challenge with implementing any new program is you don’t have anything to go on from the past." He said the previous Conservative government made a decision to address this problem in the Northumberland Strait through a debt mediation program. He said there were about 30 fishermen who took advantage of that program.

"There’s an over 80 per cent approval rate to date, but we will be evaluating this program to see if there is a way that we can take a great program and make it better," Campbell said.