Fisheries Resources Reconciliation Agreement

The Reconciliation Agreement will facilitate an increased role in collaborative governance management, fisheries management and decision-making processes of the United Nations, whose areas account for 40 per cent of British Columbia`s coastal waters. In the future, this will provide better access to existing fishing licences and quotas through a voluntary waiver process that will create jobs and generate revenue for communities on the north and central coast. It will also help develop new partnerships and intensify relationships with the private sector to bring fish caught in these communities to market. In June 2018, the Prime Minister signed the Framework Agreement on Reconciliation for the Management and Protection of Bioregional Oceans with 14 coastal countries, including Coastal First Nations. This framework agreement promotes a more coordinated and effective approach to ocean management, management and protection on the North Pacific coast, including marine ecosystems, marine resources and sea use activities. While the health of the oceans in our territories has declined over time, our communities` access to local commercial fishing – and their economic benefits – has deteriorated. Under the FRRA, coastal First Nations negotiated for better economic access to commercial fishing over the next 20 years. This means that within two decades, the United Nations will have about 30% of commercial fishing licences in our territories. Our nations will work to develop our capacity to work on these licences themselves and provide our people with local jobs in small, sustainable crop-based community fisheries as part of a conservation management system. “For more than a year, we have been calling on the federal government to involve fishing organizations more in discussions about access to resources as part of the legal mediation process with First Nations, and we have not been successful,” said Martin Mallet, Executive Director of the Maritime Fishermen`s Union (MFU), in an interview. “We`re not talking about participating in rights or contract negotiations.

We are talking about everything related to fisheries management. We have to sit at the table. In 2019, Fisheries and Oceans Canada signed two fisheries rights reconciliation agreements: 15. August 2019 – Elsipogtog and Esgeno-petitj First Nations (two Mi`kmaq communities in Neubraunschweig) August 30, 2019 – Maliseet of Viger First Nation, Quebec Fisheries and Oceans Canada is working with these First Nations to develop fisheries management approaches and tools to support fisheries and management objectives. In 1999, the value of mi`kmaq and Maliseet First Nations first nations municipal landings in the Maritime and Gaspé region was estimated at $3 million. Between 2007 and 2015, the value of the same municipal commercial landings increased from $66 million to $145 million, an increase of 120 per cent. Thanks to their diverse fishing-related business opportunities, municipal commercial fishing companies Mi`kmaq and Maliseet First Nations together generate more than $25 million in indirect fishing revenues per year. About 10% of Mi`kmaq and Maliseet First Nation fishing machines and up to 50 per cent of management positions in their fishing companies are held by women. Women make up up to 33% of the working population of fishing companies. “We need the Government of Canada to protect the common good.

This means that we must act immediately against all fisheries outside the fishing periods set by the government. Inaction threatens the future of fishing for all,” said Colin Sproul, president of the Bay of Fundy Inshore Fishermen`s Association in the press release.