Change in marketing fish delayed by a year

Money paid into a trust by the Peter Ballantyne Cree Nation to help the Saskatchewan Co-operative Fisheries Ltd. gain independence will be held at least a year longer than anticipated.

SCFL, which was originally slated to pull out of the Freshwater Fish Marketing Corporation this spring, has given the move another year until April 2012
In the meantime, SCFL has $550,000 from the Peter Ballantyne Cree Nation, individuals, and various co-operatives. The money, which will be kept in trust, is to be used by SCFL to build its own plant which will allow SCFL to leave the FFMA. Currently, there is no investment from private industry or government.

The original business plan for the plant did not see fishers making enough money. The second business plan satisfied the fishers more, but it saw a lengthier time for investors to get a return.

Beauval Métis fisher George Hanson said it boils down to fishers wanting their own plant so they aren’t tied to a monopoly and can hopefully make more money.

He said the trick is finding enough investment to build the plant but with fishers still maintaining majority ownership.

“They don’t want anybody coming in but if we don’t have a choice, we have to go that route. But right now, we’d like to get something going on our own that we could own it 51 per cent. Then this way, at least, if somebody wanted to pocket the money, it’d be the fishermen,” said Hanson.

The delay in leaving does not surprise John Wood, president and chief executive officer of the Winnipeg-based FFMC.

“There really isn’t any infrastructure in place to replace Freshwater’s own agency system in the province,” said Wood. “I’m not entirely sure that all fishers are looking to pull out. That’s one of the reasons why another year has been added to the time Saskatchewan will be under the Freshwater Fish Marketing Act to solidify exactly how this is going to take place.”

Wood said the corporation will be happy to purchase fish from this province for the next year.

“Depending on how things are worked out between the federal government and the Saskatchewan government, we’re looking forward to working under some other structure a year from now.”

Fishers are still determined to build and operate their own plant, even though that plan didn’t materialize this past year. It was again the hot topic of discussion at their annual fisheries conference in Prince Albert in April.
Hanson admitted not all fishers want to pull out of the FFMA, pointing to some fishers in the far north.

The province has remained firm on its stance regarding a new fish processing plant here. In its press release announcing the one-year extension, the government wrote “while the Saskatchewan government has been providing annual assistance to the SCFL to help it plan for an open market, and will continue to support the fishers’ federation with further one-time operating assistance in 2011/12, it will not invest directly in new fish processing facilities in Saskatchewan.” That lack of investment from the provincial government upsets a lot of fishers.

“There is no future or there’s no job and there’s no income other than welfare if this industry doesn’t go ahead for many people,” said SCFL board member Gord Stomp, who is also mayor of Air Ronge. “So if they can’t directly invest in industry, they certainly could directly invest somehow in equity for the fishermen to own part of the fish plant through some programs.”

Stomp said such an investment is about more than just business.

“The government is not only investing here as equity for the plant ownership on behalf of the fishermen, if there is a process that can be done, and I’m sure there is. But, they’re also investing in the social future of northern people.”

The FFMC will continue to buy all Saskatchewan fish that are commercially caught over the next year. After April 1, 2012, the FFMC can still buy Saskatchewan fish, but on an open market basis.