11/19/2025
Recently, I met with Joanne Thompson, the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans. In our meeting, I voiced concerns from stakeholders and constituents across the country who rely on productive, sustainable fisheries and blue economy activities to make ends meet and put food on the table.
I stood up for key industries: crab fishers, seaweed and shellfish industries, and other seafood sector workers have been deeply affected by tariffs and global economic shifts. I stood up for harvesters on the West Coast: we need to immediately ban foreign ownership of licences and quotas, and support an owner-operator model that creates well-paying jobs and brings new harvesters into the industry. And I stood up for coastal First Nations, for whom fishing is a vital source of food security. Canada must recognize the rights of Indigenous peoples to a fair share of the catch.
The federal budget makes progress on some of the challenges fishers face – particularly, support for the seafood sector and upkeep for small craft harbours. But there is much more to do. The government must clean up our coasts by bringing back the Ghost Gear Initiative, support local economies and conservation by expanding the Pacific Strategic Salmon Initiative and BC Salmon Restoration and Innovation Fund, and invest in local ship-breaking and recycling infrastructure as a nation-building project. Coastal communities, in Courtenay-Alberni and across the country, deserve nothing less.
