Atlantic fishing fleets almost entirely in Canadian hands, survey says

Atlantic fishing fleets are almost entirely in Canadian hands with less than two per cent having "some form of foreign involvement," according to preliminary results from a national ownership survey of commercial fishing licence holders.

The information was disclosed last week at a parliamentary committee examining foreign ownership and corporate concentration of fishing quota and licences in Canada.

Hearings resume Monday.

Fisheries and Oceans required 2,500 commercial licence holders on all three coasts to complete a detailed ownership survey.

It was part of a 2021 federal government commitment for greater scrutiny over who controls and benefits from harvesting licences that land seafood worth $4.6 billion annually in Canada.

Federal forensic accountants analyzed the responses in December.

Canadian individuals, corporations hold 98% of licences

"We do have preliminary results for Atlantic Canada," Mark Waddell, DFO director general of fisheries policy, told MPs last week.

In Atlantic Canada, the mandatory survey was sent to all commercial fishing licence holders in the offshore, midshore and so-called exempt fleets — all those not classified as inshore owner operators.

"Based on the survey findings, 98 per cent of Atlantic licences … are held by Canadian individuals or Canadian corporations," Waddell said. "Less than 2 per cent are held by foreign entity."

DFO says less than two per cent of the Atlantic, Quebec and Arctic fleets surveyed were found to have "some degree of foreign involvement."

Foreign involvement can include direct or indirect ownership over the licence holder, debts with foreign lenders, foreign individuals in executive positions, and being a related party to foreign interests in the fishing industry.

Waddell said 83 per cent of Atlantic enterprises that completed a survey account for a combined total of 90 per cent of licences.

DFO says it is considering enforcement action on licence holders that did not respond.

Aggregated results, including those from the West Coast, will be released to the public this spring, Waddell said.

The federal government requires harvesting licence holders to be majority Canadian-owned.

In Nova Scotia, which leads all provinces in seafood production, there is no Canadian-ownership requirement for onshore seafood plants.

The provincial government issues licences for buyers and processors.

It requires fish buyers and fish processors to have businesses that are registered in Nova Scotia.

Inshore fishermen 'afraid' to testify

MPs are also looking at corporate control of the inshore fishery.

In Atlantic Canada and Quebec, the main defence against corporatization is the "owner-operator" policy that has been put into regulation.

There are 10,000 inshore owner-operators in the region. They are supposed to have control and be the main beneficiary of a licence.

From October 2022 to March, DFO ordered 55 owner-operators to restructure their business to become compliant with licence conditions.

Jennifer Mooney, DFO licensing director, attributed it largely to loan agreements that left fishermen beholden to processors and other non-financial institutions.

"Loan agreements may need to be adjusted or changed to have exit clauses," Mooney told the committee. "We are looking to see that those loan agreements are being paid down."

Conservative fisheries critic Clifford Small said it was impossible to get fishermen to testify about the situation.

"There's a great fear," he said.

"We couldn't source harvesters who wanted to talk about these types of things, even in in camera meetings where they where they wouldn't be identified. The fear was so great that it would get back to the processing sector."

Neil Davis, regional director of the Pacific Region's fisheries management branch, told MPs the department is creating a public registry where licence and quota transactions would be available.

Fleets in Atlantic Canada landed seafood in 2021 worth $4.2 billion with 38,500 people employed in the harvesting sector. Landings in the Pacific were valued at $410 million with 4,500 employed fishing.