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October, 2005 Edition
What's Happening at the FCC
2005 Annual General Meeting & Conference
The Conference
The FCC Conference and AGM, Celebrating 60 years, was a great success. Delegates enjoyed
beautiful Old Montreal, starting with the Chairman’s reception on Tuesday evening and ending with
a breakfast session on Thursday morning. A hearty group of delegates continued, playing golf on
the blustery Thursday afternoon.
The Board of Directors Meeting
The Board addressed a number of key issues and set “Next Step” directions for the FCC regarding
Trade Policy/Market Access – European Union (cooked & peeled shrimp); the WTO Doha Round
trade negotiations; Endangered Species; Highly Sensitive Marine Ecosystems (bottom impact gear
sectors); Fisheries Management Renewal ; Owner/Operator Fleet Separation Policy; Straddling
Stocks; and Member Recruitment.
An important component of the meeting was establishing key objectives for the FCC in 2005/6 in
the FCC areas of excellence – Trade Policy/Market Access; Environment/Oceans Use; Fisheries
Management/Economics; Inspection, International Fisheries; Industry Development &
Communications. In developing the 2005/6 objectives the Board noted that fisheries
responsibilities are spread over a number of federal departments – DFO, International Trade
Canada, Agriculture & Agri-Food, and Environment Canada. In particular, the Board felt that DFO
was losing contact with the economic factors, constraints, opportunities, etc. faced by the
Canadian fish & seafood industry. One of the projects in the coming year will be to develop a
targeted, readable brochure/pamphlet on our economics.
New Brunswick Truckers Blockade
In response to the 3-day blockade, the FCC contacted the RCMP Commissioner and the Attorney
General outlining some of the costs experienced by Quebec and Maritime companies and their
employees. Particularly hard hit were workers in plants shipping fresh seafood. With shipments
halted, they were sent home. As well, companies making long term decisions where to produce
products for the US market between their Canadian and US processing facilities take note of such
disturbances. The message to the authorities is that delays in taking action have real short -term
and long term costs.
Patrick McGuinness elected 2006
Chairman of the International Coalition of Fisheries Associations (ICFA) and
Treasurer of the International Association of Fish Inspectors (IAFI)
ICFA is an association of 17 national fisheries associations from North America, Western and
Eastern Europe, Scandinavia, and ASIA. In 2006, ICFA will be working closely with the FAO’s
Fisheries Division regarding its work on bottom trawling and high seas fisheries, technical
guidelines for fisheries marine reserve areas, and a memorandum of understanding between the
FAO and CITES regarding endangered species reviews concerning commercial fish and seafood
species.
IAFI allows the FCC to maintain excellent, collegial working relations with senior government
inspection officials from a wide range of countries. This has proved effective with the EU
(cadmium in lobsters) and the USA (bioterrorism – exempt non –processing fishing vessels) as
recent examples.
KEY Meetings - October
EU Shrimp Working Group. This group of federal and provincial officials and industry
representatives has recently been struck to develop strategies to get the European Union to
improve the market access for cooked and peeled shrimp. The Deputy Ministers of International
Trade Canada and DFO will co-chair the first meeting.
Expert Committee on Food Safety, Ottawa. This committee meets on an annual basis to review
emerging food safety issues in order to provide an early warning advisory to the Canadian
government and, where appropriate, suggest possible strategies to address the issues.
Aquatic Animal Health Committee, Ottawa. This Committee is charged with helping CFIA and
DFO implement Canada’s new National Aquatic Animal Health Program which applies to
nationally reportable diseases in aquatic animals. The aim is to have a program that meets the
international and Canadian trade requirements while maintaining a competitive Canadian fish and
seafood industry and ensure healthy, sustainable, aquatic recourses.
Can-Trace Steering Committee, Conference Call, Ottawa. This committee is attempting to
develop product traceability models that are acceptable to major food retailers and distributors and
useful to processors. The objective is to have models that are somewhat similar across the
various food sectors but take into account the uniqueness of the sectors.
Fisheries Management
Fisheries Act
Fisheries Renewal was one of the six priorities Minister Regan identified in his report to Cabinet
that he will pursue in 2005/6. He received funding allocation for the initiative in the 2005 Federal
Budget. Minister Regan wants to table proposed amendments in November in Parliament. The
renewed Fisheries Act will have 6 key elements: Governance; Allocation; Licensing; Fisheries Co-
Management; Administrative Sanctions; and Habitat Management. Below are some key issues:
The Minister will retain authority over access, allocation; fleet/group shares. However, an
“allocation instrument” will be introduced which will establish a process for making allocation
decisions, including allocation principles, a legal instrument to establish allocations in excess
of the current 9 year maximum; and authority to establish advisory body(ies) to hold public
consultations in order to provide public recommendations on allocation issues.
Provide for the Minister to enter mutually legally binding co-management agreements,
Provide for administrative sanctions to address fishing license infractions.
Preservation of the Independent Inshore Fleet in Atlantic Canada/Trust Agreements
Before tabling the revised Fisheries Act, Minister Regan wants to establish an updated owner
operator/fleet separation policy. A proposal has been developed, the key elements are:
establish a new license holder category – “independent core status”;
independent core license assigned to existing core harvesters not subject to a controlling
agreement (i.e. trust agreement);
license transfer privileges and any new privileges introduced would be available only to the
independent core status harvesters;
harvesters involved in current controlling agreements would have 3/5/7 years to convert to
independent core status or their licenses would be permanently non-transferable;
independent core license status could be issued to a corporation owned 100% by the
independent core harvester.
Discussions have indicated that various harvesters and harvesting groups have significant
difficulties with the above proposed approached.
Inspection/Technical
Change in US Labelling Rules
With respect to US food labelling, there are two significant changes that become effective January
1, 2006 - mandatory allergens and trans fat labelling. Regarding to trans fat, USFDA, however, is
about to issue a guidance document concerning an extension to the deadline. Factors to be
considered in the extension request are: 1) whether the product contains 0.5 grams or less of trans
fat; 2) reasons for the request; 3) the number of existing labels that the firm is requesting to use; 4)
the dollar amount of the labels in 3); and 5) the estimated amount of time to exhaust the existing
label stock.
As trans fat is not a significant health issue, the FCC expects USFDA to look for a seamless
transition (i.e. not cause industry major headaches).
Note: The upcoming mandatory Canadian nutritional label requires a trans fat declaration.
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