Large Corporations Buy-up Licences / Quota

Problem: Licenses and Quotas are increasingly owned by large corporations

Solutions:

• Lobby Provincial and Federal governments to prevent this from going ahead

• Mandatory disclosure on who owns licenses/quotas – no ‘corporate veil’

• Education – license should be owned by Canadians only

• Food security – fish is food

• Canadian taxpayer pays for management but value goes out of Canada

• Jobs are lost – shore sector and communities suffer

• Draw parallels with housing ownership in Vancouver

• Call on federal and provincial governments to increase % of community owned quota (GDA authority over Groundfish Development Quota)

• Province must represent communities and BC residents

• Owner-operator – investors can’t own

• Fleet separation – no processors can own licenses

• Need to develop method to compensate investors who have already bought quota/licenses

• A transition fund to permit those fishers who have invested in quota to transition to compensate them for their investments

• PIICAF gave 7 years to divest yourself of quota that was leased out

• Lose 10%/year of quota if leased out. The 10% goes into a pool for others