Mr. Speaker, NWT’s commercial fishery has been hit hard over the past decade by a number of circumstances well beyond its influence or control.
Hardest hit have been commercial fishers in the NWT who have been powerless to respond to a rise in the Canadian dollar, border closures and weakening US and global markets. Our fleets and fishers are aging considerably. The volumes and participation in our fishery have declined.
What has not decreased, Mr. Speaker, is the number of fish in the lake or the proven markets with which we can rebuild our fishery. The NWT Economic Opportunities Strategy has highlighted both of these as opportunities to restore and revitalize an industry that, I believe, remains important and vital to our economy and to our territory.
Last year we committed to developing a business plan to make this happen. Today I would like to highlight to Members the steps that we are taking to put this plan in place.
Our plan sees the current governance model on the lake changing dramatically.
It will see the responsibility of ownership, operation and replacement of a processing plant transferred from the federal Freshwater Fish Marketing Corporation to the local private sector.
It will transform our fishery from a whole fish fishery to one that supplies domestic, commercial and export markets with value-added fish products in both fresh and frozen form.
A private sector single desk selling function, profit driven, not legislatively driven, will work to ensure all orders are competitively served.
We will extend the NWT market for Great Slave Lake fish north and south, from Banks Island to Fort Smith.
Current suppliers of domestic markets will be offered resources to address the capital requirements they need to serve their markets efficiently and effectively. These men and women are long-standing partners in our work to grow and develop local markets and we will ensure they thrive with our industry.
Our plan calls for investment to ensure our producers can be mobile around the lake, not locked into the areas around Yellowknife and Hay River.
Through a transitional contractual agreement with the federal Freshwater Fish Marketing Corporation, we aim to market and sell fish from Great Slave Lake into abandoned markets in Alberta.
We are investing in a training program, with a focus on young fishers, aimed at increasing the number of Northerners on the lake.
We propose to encourage new fishers from outside the NWT, mainly from Alberta, to relocate their now defunct operations to Great Slave Lake.
Mr. Speaker, the benefits of our plan can and will be realized all around. Much like the model that we recognize in devolution, producers will see the benefits of having a direct say, and even ownership, in our industry.
Within five years we aim to see the economic impact of this fishery increasing tenfold and returns to producers increasing by at least 50 percent at dockside. For the NWT economy, it will mean new investment in capital, a thriving fishery and over 200 jobs and income opportunities.
Rebuilding our commercial fishery will take some time, and it will require some investment. We estimate almost $5 million will be needed to build an export-grade fish plant and see our plan realized. At least three-quarters of this investment will need to come from federal and territorial levels of government. It will be an investment in the economic potential of an industry that, I believe, is both overdue and reasonable.
The Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment has already committed $1.5 million this year to ensuring that we can move our business plan forward, and we are hoping to work with the Canadian Northern Economic Development Agency to make this happen.
Mr. Speaker, despite obstacles and challenges, there remains a bright future for our fishery and I would like to assure Members of this Assembly that we are making every effort to realize it. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.