Fish advisory council disbanded, MP says

A New Democratic MP said Monday that the federal government has shut down an advisory body that collected the views of fishermen to help make better science decisions.

"This is just a shameful decision," said Ryan Cleary, the MP for St. John's South-Mount Pearl. The Fisheries Resource Conservation Council (FRCC) was shut down on Thursday, he said.

Cleary said he was unsure whether the closure is part of a series of cuts at the Department of Fisheries and Oceans that are expected to save the department $56.8 million in the coming year.

The FRCC was founded in the early 1990s, in the wake of closures that rocked the Newfoundland and Labrador fishery starting with a moratorium on northern cod in 1992.

"This is basically a voice for fishermen.… The fishermen on the water are essentially scientists in a way," said Cleary, who intends to raise the issue in the House of Commons.

"When you axe this, you take away a critical, a crucial voice for fishermen."

Meanwhile, Cleary said, Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Kathy Dunderdale should take the lead in fighting pending service cuts at Fisheries and Oceans.

"She should be screaming from the rooftops that this is enough," Cleary said in an earlier interview.

"We've got to stand up for rural Newfoundland and Labrador, make sure we have a fishery, make sure we have a future. If she doesn't do that, she's failing her province."

A memo sent to DFO staff across the country last week spelled out more details of how the federal government plans to reduce its budget by $57 million for the coming year alone.

DFO told its employees that there will be fewer of them doing less work, that the science program is being simplified, and that several ocean management pilot projects are being eliminated.

Among other things, stock assessments will now be done every three to five years instead of annually.

Cleary said any further cuts to the science program will be harmful.

"Newfoundland and Labrador without a fishery is not Newfoundland and Labrador, but if we're not careful that's where we're going to end up being, Newfoundland and Labrador without a fishery," Cleary told CBC News.

"Without a federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans, without management that works, without a science branch, she's going to be gutted."

Dunderdale has not yet commented directly on the latest DFO cuts, but in an interview with CBC News last week said she is prepared to disagree with Prime Minister Stephen Harper through what she described as a "professional" relationship.

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Source: CBC