Business View Magazine | July 2019

235 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE JULY 2019 THE F I SHER I ES COUNC I L OF CANADA manufacturing sector in Canada. Paul Lansbergen, President of the FCC, says that the biggest issue currently facing the Canadian fishing sector is stability of access to fishing resources and the concomitant confidence of companies to invest in infrastructure and materials. He explains: “The Canadian government has a reconciliation agenda with the indigenous peoples across Canada – they want to increase indigenous participation in a number of sectors, fisheries being one of them. So, the government had taken away a quota for Arctic surf clam (sustainably harvested from the deep, nutrient-rich waters of the North Atlantic) and they were going to reallocate that quota to indigenous communities, but they did not compensate the incumbent company. They have since reversed that initial reallocation, but said they were going to do it all over again because there were some complicating issues in how they did it. So, we’re waiting to see how they’re going to do that, next time.” “But,” he continues, “they have not given any signal that they are going to compensate the incumbent. The problem with that is the company had recently made $150 million worth of investment in upgrading a processing plant, upgrading a vessel, and buying a brand new one. And, without that quota, part of that is excess capacity. So, that reallocation without compensation does not respect past investments. Then, for everybody else in the sector, they know that this reconciliation is not just a one-time thing; it can certainly happen in other fisheries. So, everybody’s concerned about who’s next. Am I going to keep my license or my quota long enough to get the payback on that next investment that I want to make? So, that’s putting a chilling effect on investment.” “We’ve got lots of growth opportunity because of growing global population, and growing demand for protein,” Lansbergen believes, “so we could realize some of that growth in markets around the world. But, we can’t do that if we’re not able to invest, innovate, and stay competitive. So, that’s the biggest challenge.” pictured above Paul Lansbergen, President of the FCC