Ottawa, ON – Clifford Small, Shadow Minister for Fisheries, Oceans, and the Canadian Coast Guard, Rick Perkins, Member of Parliament for South Shore-St. Margaret’s, and Chris d’Entremont, Member of Parliament for West Nova issued the following statement regarding the allocation of elver quota for the 2025 season:
“Once again, the Liberal Minister of Fisheries, Diane Lebouthillier, is imposing a Marxist income redistribution program while ignoring the long-standing Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) policy that new entrants can enter a fishery with either increased quota available or through a willing buyer/willing seller approach.
“This week, commercial elver licence holders received their quota allocations from DFO which permanently expropriates half of their existing quota to new entrants without compensation, ignoring the willing buyer/willing seller policy of DFO. This wacko policy risks destroying businesses and commercial harvesters’ livelihoods and is completely unnecessary.
“We welcome new entrants to the fishery and believe the science shows that these new entrants can easily be accommodated with an increased quota, not through this damaging radical expropriation. If Liberal Fishery Minister Lebouthillier chose to follow the science, then she should increase the quota to accommodate new entrants instead of making decisions based on their wacko ideology. Conservatives will never support the expropriation of quota for any reasons other than conservation.
“We call on the Liberal Minister to stop this attack on the hardworking elver harvesters and find a solution that works for all parties. We need an axe the tax election now to elect a Common Sense Conservative government that will stop attacking our commercial harvesters and bring home common sense.”