NUNAVUT
Hunter Tootoo abandoned his position as minister of Fisheries and Oceans just before debate over the controversial "Last in, First out" shrimp policy began, but a concerted effort from Nunavut stakeholders saw the territory achieve a positive outcome anyway.

Nunavut Senator Dennis Patterson is happy the Department of Fisheries and Oceans has chosen to scrap the "Last in, First out" policy for Northern shrimp fishing. - NNSL file photo

"I was delighted on July 6 when the minister (Dominic Leblanc) clearly stated that policy is not a sustainable instrument of public policy and should be replaced by a system that they described as proportional sharing," said Nunavut Senator Dennis Patterson. "This is a great step forward but it's not the end of the story."

Patterson, the Government of Nunavut, Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. and the Nunavut Wildlife Management Board all lobbied Leblanc to scrap LIFO, which Patterson argued was discriminatory toward Nunavut fisheries because it put a preference on older fisheries, leaving the young territory of Nunavut at a disadvantage.

Nunavut briefly had a representative at the Department of Fisheries and Oceans in Tootoo but his resignation from the position and subsequent seeking of addiction treatment took that Northern voice away.

"Certainly, the challenge with dealing with this issue, which came at us rather urgently, was that at least I for one do not know minister Leblanc, whereas I've known Hunter Tootoo for years," said Patterson.

"It did result in quite an intense effort to reach out to minister Leblanc and I can tell you I participated in several conference calls of stakeholders where we discussed the urgency and the need to communicate effectively."

He credited the joint letter from the GN and Nunavut organizations as an excellent example of strong communication for a common cause.

"It was unfortunate that we couldn't pick up the phone and talk to the minister on a first-name basis but I think it has produced a flurry of effective lobbying that has clearly had an impact," said Patterson.

"I think because of our efforts we have made our influence felt despite the fact we were dealing with a new minister many of us didn't know."

Still, that's not the end of the Northern shrimp policy story for Nunavut. Leblanc's decision regarded a zoning area called SFA-6, so Nunavut is still waiting to hear how the proportional policy will be applied to allocating shrimp stocks in Nunavut's adjacent waters, known as SFA0-3.

"After a thorough review of the Ministerial Advisory Panel Report on the Northern shrimp fishery's LIFO policy, I wish to confirm acceptance of its fundamental recommendation," stated Leblanc in a news release July 6. "The panel determined that after being in place for about 20 years, 'LIFO is not a sustainable instrument of public policy,' and should be replaced by a system of proportional sharing for the future."

Patterson said he was glad to see specific mention of the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement.

"I think we've put those issues clearly on the minister's radar screen and I'm optimistic that the approach used in Nunavut waters and allocated shrimp will be fair to Nunavut and will respect those principles," he said.

That said, not everyone was happy with Leblanc's decision.

Mark Strahl, the Conservative critic for Fisheries and Oceans, in a news release called scrapping LIFO "a betrayal of the offshore fishermen who built the Northern shrimp fishery and entered into a deal with the government in good faith to share that resource with their inshore colleagues after the cod collapse."

He warned that because of shrimp stocks retreating further north, a proportional sharing system could potentially result in unsafe fishing by inshore-sized boats in territory that only offshore boats are built to navigate.

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