Fishers in Hay River, N.W.T., question plans for new fish plant

Hay River, N.W.T's new fish plant is set to open this year and local fishers are not happy with how it's expected to be run.

Jamie Linington is the interim executive director of the Tu Cho Fishers Cooperative which is based in Hay River and is made up of N.W.T. fishers. Most of the fishers have been in the industry for decades and for others, like her, it's generational.

She said according to the territorial government's 2017 strategy for revitalizing the Great Slave Lake fishery, the new fish plant was supposed to strengthen the commercial industry and help increase production numbers.

But six years after the release of that strategy, Linington says they are nowhere near that.

"What was intended to really revitalize the industry and assist an industry sector has turned into something that could have made situations for fishers worse," she said.

The first issue Linington said is the monopoly on fish sales in the N.W.T. The Northwest Territories is the only Canadian province or territory still under the federal Freshwater Fish Marketing Act (FFMA).

The purpose of the Act, passed in 1969, was to buy, process and then sell the fish caught in western and northern Canada and parts of Ontario through the Freshwater Fish Marketing Corporation (FFMC).

Linington said the fishers only receive a 30 to 40 per cent return from the sale of their fish, while the FFMC absorbs the rest. She also said the fish prices are very low but fishers have no choice but to sell at those prices.

"The Act limits commercial fishers from selling their own fish over the Territories' border," said Linington.

Eventually, every province and territory withdrew from the Act except the Northwest Territories.

"We are 80 to 90 per cent Indigenous industry — that are indentured servants to a Crown corporation that holds a monopoly," she said.

The second issue Linington said is the fish plant is too big, and that fishers have been saying that from the beginning.

"[The fish plant] was intended for fishers and it's not built the way the fishing sector had recommended it be built," she said. "They don't listen."

She said the plant is eventually supposed to pay for its own operating costs through production, but that would require more output than in the previous years.

Unrealistic numbers

Once fully operational, the territory expects the fish plant to more than double the annual amount of processed commercial fish from 600,000 to 1.5 million pounds.

Linington said the industry is suffering and she doesn't think those numbers are realistic.

She added that the territorial government hasn't met many of its objectives and mandates within the revitalization strategy, so she has no idea how the plant is expected to sustain itself.

"They haven't done anything that would incentivize or increase production," she said.

It's an aging population and younger people are not joining the industry, Linington said. It's hard work for extremely low pay. 

"I'm very passionate about the industry sector and I'm also very sad. I have watched it completely die," she said.

A death blow to the co-operative

Linington also questioned the management of the new fish plant. She said fishers created the cooperative to run the old plant and were set to operate the new one once it opened, but the job has been handed to the FFMC.

In May 2023 an agreement went into effect between the territory and the FFMC to manage operations at the new plant. Linington described it as a death blow to the Tu Cho Fishers Cooperative.

"[The fish plant] was intended to provide fishers with the necessary infrastructure to be free from the FFMC," she said.

"They've made a lot of money off the backs of commercial fishers and fishers."

In the Legislative Assembly on May 30, Minister Caroline Wawzonek acknowledged the N.W.T. needs to withdraw from the Freshwater Fish Marketing Act, but added that local fishers aren't ready to take over the new plant.

She also said FFMC offers a guaranteed sale in a market the N.W.T. is not currently ready to sell to.

The minister also acknowledged the disadvantages of being a part of the FFMA.

"It provides a guarantee where fishers are guaranteed a certain income amount that comes on a regular basis," she said. "Unfortunately what the offset of that is, as well it's a guarantee and a floor, it also creates a bit of a ceiling."

Wawzonek said it will take time to get there but the territory is committed to withdrawing from the FFMA. In the meantime, she said the new plant has to get up and running.

She also said they are looking at potential exemptions.

Wawzonek said the plan is to have the Tu Cho Fishers Cooperative take over the plant in three years. They also expect revenue to snowball between now and then and the plant will hopefully be in a place to generate its own revenue.

But Linington says the fishers need help now to increase production. She wants to see prices for the fish go up and see more support and cooperation from the territory — something she says is not happening.

"You can totally decimate what's left of this industry if you're not careful," Linington said. "We are the industry, we are the producers and what you're doing is wrong."