The blue dichotomy: corporatization of Canada’s oceans

It is often forgotten that every independent fishing vessel in Canada is a small business on the water, representing a proud past and a bright future for coastal economies across the country. History has demonstrated harshly that our collective success depends on keeping the value of this industry in the capable hands of the independent harvesters who participate in the fishery professionally as stewards of the ocean. The federal government has a distinct and critical role to manage and protect Canada’s fisheries and oceans. In guiding those decisions, emphasis must be placed on the government’s stated objectives in the Fisheries Act: To support independent inshore licence holders; To recognize social, economic, and cultural factors; and The preservations or promotion of the independence of inshore harvesters. However, increasing corporatization of the fishery—particularly foreign-owned, multinational companies—and speculative investors continues to be willfully supported by decision-makers. Courtney Langille is the government relations and communications representative for the Fish, Food, and Allied Workers Union. Photograph courtesy of FFAW-Unifor For example, in the Pacific region where corporatization has an even bigger grip than on the Atlantic coast, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) has allocated the vast majority of halibut quota to processors and multinational corporations. Independent halibut harvesters now own less than 10 per cent of the total commercial quota. In the Maritimes, Champlain Capital has taken control of eight processing plants in rural communities since 2017, creating a highly skewed business environment for the few remaining local plants. This results in sending dividends that would have remained in our coastal communities to international shareholders. Royal Greenland, a Crown corporation owned by the Government of Greenland, has quickly become the largest seafood processor in Newfoundland and Labrador, securing conditions to control all aspects of the fishery since their entrance in 2016. Royal Greenland and similar corporations enjoy “privileged access to quotas or landings,” despite such practices not being legally permitted in the inshore fishery. One of the most striking expressions of corporate nepotism was DFO’s decision in January 2024 to allocate nearly 60 per cent of the emerging commercial redfish fishery to the corporate-owned offshore fleet, a handful of giant dragger vessels that are already the largest quota holders for fisheries in Canada, rather than the independent owner-operators in the Gulf of St. Lawrence that support the sustainability of resource-dependent communities throughout five provinces. The entire coastal-based fleet will receive less than 25 per cent without reconsideration, a decision that will directly and deliberately take security away from small rural businesses, and the coastal communities at the heart of Canada’s history. The decision is an indignity to Canadian workers who rely on access to strategic natural resources, and is blatantly counter to the department’s own mandate. Enshrining owner-operator policy into law in 2021 was celebrated across the industry as it set out to protect the value of fisheries by ensuring that it remains in local communities. However, as a regulatory body DFO, has proven to be either unequipped or unwilling to enforce this policy. Instead, the reaction to investigations into cartel-like behaviour among corporations has been to gently guide them back into compliance on paper. In 1977, Canada’s Fisheries Minister Roméo LeBlanc declared a 200 nautical miles exclusive economic zone around our coastline to protect fisheries for "local fishermen and adjacent coastal communities.” By handing major access rights over to corporations, Canada is now undermining these objectives, and weakening our coastal economy. The question is: Will the future of our fishery be vibrant and sustainable, comprised of thousands of small businesses on the water that continue to contribute to the rich fabric of our culture, identity, and economy; or will it be controlled by corporations to serve their own financial gains? Indeed, as the saying goes, ‘if you are not at the table, you are on the menu.’ Despite being on the menu at most tables, Canada's fishery industry continues to show up and advocate for all Canadians who value our oceans to protect this public resource, and to ensure that it is the people of Canada who enjoy the economic and societal benefits that come from our waters. While the ocean is vast and deep—assuredly, it has a bottom. Courtney Langille is the government relations and communications representative for the Fish, Food, and Allied Workers Union (FFAW-Unifor) in Newfoundland and Labrador, and a board member of the Canadian Independent Fish Harvester Federation (CIFHF) since 2021. The CIFHF is the national advocacy voice for Canadian small businesses on the water, representing more than 14,000 owner-operators that generate over $1.5-billion in landed value and even more in seafood exports. The Hill Times

The blue dichotomy: corporatization of Canada’s oceans

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The blue dichotomy: corporatization of Canada’s oceans

The Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada’s January 2024 redfish allocations in the Gulf of St. Lawrence will directly and deliberately take security away from small rural businesses, and the coastal communities at the heart of Canada’s history.

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