Buyout blues: Settlement hopes evaporate for former fishermen

By Natalie Musseau

FOR THE SOU’WESTER

Shirley Green is looking for work in Ontario, or maybe Alberta; bitter and disillusioned, but still hoping for help.

It's not what the 50-something Burgeo, N.L. resident wants to be doing, but she says it's her only option after the federal government ruined her retirement plans.

Green's husband Ron sold his groundfish licence back to government in 2000 during one of several buyouts offered to inshore fishermen.

"He didn't get out because he wanted to, he had medical issues," she said.

The couple thought they could live comfortably on Green's disability pension and the money they would receive through the buyout. They planned for early retirement.

Things didn't go as they planned.

The year after they accepted the buyout, the government clawed back some $12,000 in TAGS money paid out to the Greens the previous year.

"I guess they didn't think we had to live the year before," Mrs. Green said.

The real blow came when the couple's tax bill arrived - they owed Revenue Canada between $20,000 and $30,000 as they were told to claim the buyout payment as capital gains.

The unexpected expense forced the Greens to re-examine their finances.

"We tried to stretch the money, but it's hard," said Mrs. Green. "For the last four years, I've been going out of the province to work - I don't want to be. In your 50s, you want to be home."

The Greens, like some 2,200 other former fishing families, are fighting to get back the money taken by government returned.

It's been a back and forth battle for the last several years, with government on one side and the fishermen, lawyer Eli Baker and some politicians on the other.

The fishermen asked for their cases to be re-examined, fought to get an answer, and were eventually denied.

Court is likely where the matter is headed to again, says Scott Simms, Liberal MP for Bonavista-Exploits. He met with representatives of the Canadian Revenue Agency (CRA) in late June on behalf of the former fishers.

It wasn't a good meeting he says, adding "it just dripped with condescension."

According to Simms, officials within the CRA refused to allow an appeal of the cases, adding if they didn't like that decision, they could sue. He brought up the settlement government reached with a small group of about 100 fishers several years ago when they threatened to take court action. Simms was told the move was to 'cut their losses.'

One official compared the situation to a parking ticket dispute, Simms said, where one person fights it in court and the other agrees to pay the fine.

"I'm dealing with people's life savings... and I got compared to a $25 parking ticket. It defied logic," says Simms.

There are two options left to the former fishers. One is to ask Gordon O'Connor, Minister of National Revenue, to hold a review. The other is to take the matter back to court.

Simms said fellow MP Bill Matthews has written to both Ministers O'Connor and Loyola Hearn, asking them to take personal action.

While the negative results of the meeting are a set back to the quest for an out of court settlement, according to Baker it does not change the legal situation.

Baker has filed applications for judicial review of the decisions made by Canada Revenue Agency.

Meanwhile for Shirley Green, it's likely back on a plane and back to work.

(Natalie Musseau is a journalist with Transcontinental Media’s Gulf News, which is a contributor to the Sou’Wester.)