A $16-million provincial fund that was created in Canada to provide funding for all aspects of the fishery has almost exclusively benefitted academic institutions, unions and big players on the processing side of the industry, not the harvesters who work directly on the water.
The Fisheries Technology and New Opportunities Program (FTNOP) was established in 2008, to provide support for harvesting, processing, and marketing initiatives in order to diversify these activities and increase the overall viability of the Newfoundland and Labrador seafood industry.
As of October 2014, a total of 261 different projects had been approved under the fund.
A CBC News analysis has found that almost all of FTNOP’s funding to date has been spent on projects led by institutions like Memorial University/Marine Institute and the Canadian Centre for Fisheries Innovation (CCFI); the Fish Food and Allied Workers (FFAW); and companies like Ocean Choice International (OCI), Quinlan Brothers, and the Barry Group.
Independent fish harvesters have not been as successful securing money from FTNOP, with only seven such applications ever approved.
In fact, the last green light for a fish harvester’s project came nearly four years ago, back in June 2011.
Fisheries and Aquaculture Minister Vaughn Granter insists the program has been a tremendous success for the industry as a whole.
But he acknowledges the low number of harvester projects, and says it’s something he wants to change.
Harvesters are in a very specific role they play in the province often they are very small and they don’t have the time and the energies to be able to put into the application process, Granter told CBC’s Fisheries Broadcast.
I’ve noticed (the low number of harvesters) since I came into the department and I’ve said to officials in the department that as we move the program forward we really need to have a focus on some of these smaller harvesters in the province.
University study raised questions
Granter isn’t the only one to have noticed a disproportionate amount of money flowing to larger processing and industry entities instead of actual harvesters.
A report done by the University of Ottawa in February 2014 noted that there was no conclusive evidence that the FTNOP program has provided equal benefit to the majority of boats in the inshore fishery sector, but also offered that undoubtedly some projects directly benefitted the under 35-foot commercial fleet.”
2015 CBC/Radio-Canada