The boys are at it again. this time, the federal express is trying to plow through Prince Edward Island’s fishing nets. It seems to be an uneven fight: the largest bureaucracy in the land pitted against the smallest province. Maybe so, but no one here believes P.E.I.won’t emerge as the victor.

What is at stake is the Island’s $350-million fishing industry. According to its government, which is backing up its rhetoric with a legal challenge, the province is not getting its fair share of fishing licences and landing quotas. “The Prince Edward Island government, along with the fishing industry, has been seeking to achieve a fair and equitable allocation of a number of species over the past number of years through long and protracted negotiations, but we are not even close to a resolution,” says P.E.I.
Agriculture, Fisheries and Aquaculture Minister Kevin MacAdam.

The feds have now announced that the current regime will be extended for another five years. P.E.I. simply won’t wait that long, says MacAdam. It can’t afford to.

The province cites a litany of offences. Under the current licensing and regulatory system, Quebec gets 61% of landings in the Gulf of St. Lawrence shrimp fishery, and New Brunswick and Newfoundland and Labrador get 19% each. P.E.I. is entitled to 0.74%. In the case of northern shrimp, P.E.I. is the only Atlantic province without a permanent licence. When it comes to Gulf snow crab, an industry launched in large part by P.E.I.
fishermen, quotas have increased in New Brunswick and Quebec, while dropping in P.E.I. to 5.074% from 13.3%. A similar pattern holds true for groundfish, bluefin tuna and the herring fishery.

Ottawa claims the system works well. P.E.I. couldn’t agree less. “Where has it worked well?” MacAdam asks. “Over the years, Prince Edward Island tuna fishers have seen their tuna quota reduced to 30% from 54% by DFO. Shrimp has been fished in the Gulf since 1965, right off P.E.I. shores.
Prince Edward Island has no permanent access to this fishery and only a temporary allocation of 0.74% of landings. We are not in a position to actually go fishing for shrimp;
we must ask fishers from other provinces to catch our small quota for us.”

Into the middle of this tirade strides Shawn Murphy, parliamentary secretary to the federal fisheries minister. Responding to MacAdam’s histrionics, Murphy became equally excited claiming the provincial government’s legal challenge could throw the country’s whole fishing industry into “turmoil.”

“The legal claim commenced … by the provincial government against the federal government and the minister of fisheries and oceans unfortunately has little to do with fisheries and everything to do with politics,” Murphy claims. “This is a diversionary tactic to draw the public’s attention away from the financial mess that this government is in.”

The parliamentary secretary should know better. After all, he is also the member of Parliament for Hillsborough. Hillsborough, P.E.I.

Right now, he’s getting thrashed by his neighbours at the legislature down the street. “Mr. Murphy is engaged in a desperate battle of fear-mongering, intimidation and blackmail through his efforts to distort the intent of the legal challenge,” storms MacAdam. “He well knows that this is all about achieving an open, transparent, accountable and fair process in fisheries’ management decisions. To suggest otherwise is simply ludicrous.”

And expensive. The federal government is not taking the challenge lying down. It has already notified Canada’s smallest province that it, too, is heading off to court — to have the province’s lawsuit dismissed.

Go for it, MacAdam dares, knowing he has history on his side. Don’t forget this was the place where Confederation was born, an historic occasion the rest of Canada has been paying for ever since — including forking out $840 million for a bridge to join Anne’s land to the mainland.

There is little doubt in anyone’s mind, at least on the East Coast, that Canada will pay once again. P.E.I. will get its revamped quotas, and Goliath will slink back to Parliament Hill, licking its wounds.
IE