OTTAWA — A federal initiative to bring native communities into the fishery is being extended an extra two years, Fisheries Minister Robert Thibault said Friday. Thibault said the government has decided the program will run until 2006 in an attempt to avoid driving up the price of licences that are being bought out and transferred to native groups.
“If we go through too short a period, it increases the price too much and it puts too much pressure on,” Thibault said. “And the timing in which the native communities can absorb that capacity is also because if we turn over too much too fast, by the time the training programs are done it is difficult for them to absorb that capacity at an acceptable rate.” While the program is being extended, no additional federal funding will be provided. Thibault said slowing down the process will allow full participation by native communities in the fishery. “But that will be done in negotiations with them so it is not detrimental to their economic development,” he added.
He also hinted that Ottawa may be finding it hard to entice non-native fishermen in Atlantic Canada to surrender licences. “The first licences are a lot easier to buy,” Thibault said. “Now we’re dealing with people who didn’t necessarily want to sell but they will if the price is right.”
