Report On Indigenous Fisheries Calls For Less DFO Input

A new Senate committee report says the Department of Fisheries and Oceans should only act as an advisor on Indigenous rights-based fisheries.

The report called ‘Peace on the Water’ lists ten recommendations, including that government draft new legislation to allow the full implementation of rights-based fisheries.

The committee says DFO has not been an effective negotiator, and the new way forward should be shared decision making with Crown-Indigenous relations and Northern Affairs Canada.

They say the ‘buyback’ approach should be eliminated, and trap quotas should be reallocated.

The committee also wants government to address systemic racism within DFO, the RCMP and other agencies.

The report is based on a study done on how moderate livelihood Indigenous fisheries have been implemented by government since the Marshall decision in 1999.

You can read the full report here.

UFCA Responds

The President of the Unified Fisheries Conservation Alliance says the findings of the Senate report are ‘incredibly biased.’

In a release, Colin Sproul says the report dismisses 22 years of work by the federal government to implement Indigenous rights-based fisheries, and doesn’t reflect the current realities of the commercial fishery.

He says the report was done without consulting the fishing industry, and the recommendations are not practical or balanced.

Sproul says substantial access has been granted to Indigenous fisheries since the Marshall decision, and the feds have invested nearly one billion dollars for First Nations impacted.

He says they support Indigenous fishing access for employment, as opposed to a royalty benefit controlled by First Nations government.

The UFCA says their goal is to have all fishers side-by-side, but advocating chaotic change is not a path to peace on the water.