Simms seeks answers

Scott Simms wants an answer.

He wants to know whether a federal government policy is allowing shrimp to bypass Canadian plants - particularly in Newfoundland and Labrador - and be sent overseas for processing.

Earlier this month Simms wrote Gail Shea, Minister for Fisheries and Oceans, asking her to explain the conditions for the factory freezer trawler licences handed out by her department.

"I am given to understand that only one-third of the shrimp caught adjacent to our province is processed here," he wrote, referring to a recent story by The Packet. "The remaining two-thirds of the shrimp, caught in the NL region, is processed and frozen onboard factory freezer trawlers at sea, then brought into the province and re-shipped for final processing in such places as Korea."

Simms, who is Member of Parliament for Bonavista-Gander-Grand Falls, asked the minister to explain the licence conditions for the companies that are fishing northern shrimp.

The Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) informed the Packet that 17 licences are held by 14 licence-holders in the offshore (greater than 100 ft) fleet.

Six of them are Newfoundland and Labrador companies.

And all of them are factory-freezer trawlers, freezing the catch on board.

According to Ben Baker, chief industrial negotiator for the Fish, Food and Allied Workers (FFAW), the union that represents most of the fishermen and plant workers in this province, the catch from these 100ft trawlers is landed at Harbour Grace, Bay Roberts and Argentia. From there, he said, it is shipped by container to places like Korea and Greenland for final processing - cooking and peeling.

The DFO confirmed for The Packet the frozen shrimp is landed at two or three locations in Newfoundland, and stored in freezers until it can be transshipped by freighter.

According to data posted on the DFO website, less than half the total catch of northern shrimp caught off the North East Coast of the province, is processed in Newfoundland and Labrador.

According to the statistics, shrimp landings in the past three years were: 117,144 metric tones for 2008, 128,665 mt in 2007 and 120,172 mt in 2006.

In those same years, plants in this province produced 28,280 tonnes, 25,982 tonnes and 24,660 tonnes, according to statistics from the province's fisheries department; less than half the shrimp landed.

Jim Dalton, union local representative for the Fish Food and Allied Workers at the Port Union plant, is still frustrated by the knowledge that northern shrimp is going somewhere else for processing. It irks him that people who worked at the plant in Port Union will struggle through the winter, on make-work and minimal Employment Insurance, while the shrimp goes through the processing lines elsewhere.

"Why am I sitting here in my house, when Greenland is processing shrimp caught by Canadian based boats. I don't want to be home, so why am I home?

"That shrimp that's off Newfoundland, in my opinion, belongs to the people of Newfoundland. So that's the question I'm asking - why am I home with no work when all of this shrimp is going out of here?"

Simms wants answers to the same questions.

He wants the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans to explain why the licences issued by Ottawa to this fleet sector allows the catch to be sent out of the country for secondary processing.

The Liberal Member of Parliament says he'll give Shea to the end of this week to respond.

Then, he says, he may raise the matter in Question Period in the House of Commons.

editor@thepacket.ca