Proposed purchase of Freshwater Fish Marketing Corporation by a Consortium of Indigenous Communities
July 8, 2019
Treaty One Territory, Manitoba
AMC Communications
Unceded Algonquin Territory (Ottawa) _ A report was released today from the Ministerial Panel on the Transformation of the Freshwater Fish Marketing Corporation setting out a three year process to guide the transition of the crown corporation to a modern structure suitable to meet the needs of those with a stake in the fishery. With respect to the panel process, the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs is concerned that a further 3 years will not serve stakeholders of the Freshwater Fish Marketing Corporation (FFMC) well.
Since 1969, under the Freshwater Fish Marketing Act, the Freshwater Fish Marketing Corporation (FFMC) has operated as a centralized marketing body that buys, processes and markets all freshwater fish from participating jurisdictions caught on a commercial licence. In the last ten years, Ontario, Saskatchewan and Manitoba have all withdrawn from the Act, each in favour of an open market — though fishers in each of the those jurisdictions continue to sell to FFMC under contract. The withdrawal of Manitoba from the Act in 2017, leaving the Northwest Territories as the sole participating jurisdiction, led to a reconsideration by the Ministry of Fisheries and Oceans of the role of the FFMC going forward and the creation of a Ministerial Advisory Panel to evaluate its future.