The following is an article I wrote and was published in The Union Forum, Issue No. 02 - Spring 2018. Bill C-68 is important to not only Newfoundlanders and Labradorians, and Atlantic Canadians but to all Canadians. For this reason, I felt like sharing.
Protecting the Owner-Operator: Breaking Free of Company Control
On February 6, 2018 Minister of Fisheries
and Oceans, Dominic Leblanc, announced changes to Canada’s Fisheries Act. For
fish harvesters, their families, fisheries organizations and coastal
communities, February 6 was an emotional day, one that many waited on with bated
breath for decades.
I cannot recall the first time I heard the
term “trust agreement.” I try to pinpoint it as it was a pivotal moment that
shaped me and my future academic and career paths. When the dirty little tool
called the “trust agreement,” or “controlling agreement,” entered into our
fisheries, it was a point in time that retooled the mechanisms of an industry
once built firmly on kinship and survival.
I grew up in Spillar’s Cove, a rural town
outside the historic fishing community of Bonavista. Bonavista was the original
“company town” in the Newfoundland and Labrador fishery. When then-Minister of
Fisheries (or, “Minister of Fishermen,” as he often stated) Romeo LeBlanc
introduced limited entry licensing and the policies of Owner Operator and Fleet
Separation in 1979, five licenses were grandfathered and permitted to remain property
of now-defunct Fishery Products International.
The names of these vessels exist still in policy documents – Margaret R,
Random Buster, Silver Jubilee, Rose Venture, and the name I often sat as a
child and repeated over the VHF radio in our little dining room, waiting for a
response from my father – “Edwin Charles, do you read, over.”
The fishery was family to me. My
grandfathers, father, uncles all made their livings from the sea; my
grandmother, mother, aunts all worked in the fish plant.
The dichotomy of the independent harvester
and the company boat was evident. While company control had not yet turned into
the monster we are now faced with, the pieces were there; the creation of a
class structure within the social fabric of our little coastal town. The result
was a class of hardworking people who live an industry that runs through our
veins as Newfoundlanders and Labradorians, yet often produced nothing more than
a reduced paycheck and a suit of oil clothes.
As I grew up, our fishery changed. As value
increased, there were forces under the surface, from deep corporate pockets, that
were morphing the relations within our industry and within our towns.
Trust agreements began to rear their ugly
heads in the 1990s, as our fisheries shifted to rely on more lucrative
shellfish like snow crab and northern shrimp[1].
I remember standing on the wharf in Old
Perlican in 2005, an excited 23 year old Masters student. I wanted to explore
the dynamic of trust agreements in a community other than my own, I wanted to
speak to harvesters about their experiences, and I wanted to produce work that
would open up the discussion on these contracts with the devil.
As I sat at the table of the only harvester
who had agreed to speak to me, it was then and only then that the true control
exhibited by a trust agreement became clear. Like Fight Club, the first rule of
a trust agreement is, “Do not talk about a trust agreement.”
In 2007, then-Minister of Fisheries Loyola
Hearn, announced that there would be a 7 year period for harvesters in trust
agreements to get out; in 2014, the efforts had consisted of nothing more than
high priced lawyers finding more ways to open loopholes.
Since, the deep pockets of corporations
have meant more licenses have been stripped from the hands of young harvesters
who long to sail on the Atlantic. Plants continue to outbid those who try to
better their enterprise and have driven the price of licenses far beyond the
reach of the harvester. As a result, the autonomy of the independent harvester
is overshadowed by corporations making decisions on when one sails, who crews a
vessel; while watching money roll into their bank accounts without regard for
those on the decks who bring the wealth to shores.
Trust agreements and corporate control beat
down and strip what we, as resilient Newfoundlanders and Labradorians, have
survived on for generations – hard work, preservation of our marine resources
to ensure sustainable livelihoods in our coastal communities for the future.
When Minister Dominic LeBlanc stated and
restated his commitment to enshrining Owner Operator, Fleet Separation and
PIIFCAF in legislation, a ripple of hope could be felt throughout coastal
communities. The corporate lobby came out swinging, seeing their deathgrip on
the fishery loosening, and finally being told that value would no longer be
funneled from our coastal communities and into banks on Bay Street. No more.
The five grandfathered vessels from
Bonavista are more than names immortalized in fishing policy; they served to be
harbingers of decades of erosion of identity and the social fabric of entire
communities. The circumvention of these policies have had an effect far beyond
the simple ownership of licenses and the concentration of wealth into corporate
coffers.
To hear Minister LeBlanc’s announcement has
been equally as surreal, emotional, and the result of decades of activism and
dedication from those who hold the fishery dear to their hearts.
Bonavista Harbour in winter
Photo credit: Tony Seaward Photography
Photo credit: Tony Seaward Photography
[1] Trust agreements separate the beneficial interest of a fishing
license from the title. Most often, these agreements are between a fish
processing company and a harvester. While the company maintains control of the
license and takes a hefty percentage of the profits, the harvester fishes for a
share. These agreements vary in terms but one thing is constant: the harvester
is a labourer, the company the employer who exploits.
No comments:
Post a Comment