PCs’ policy on fish processing cost the industry millions, says Gerry Byrne | CBC News
lost millions when a compensation fund proposed as part of the
Canada-European trade agreement was scrapped two years ago — and he
blames the PC government of the day.
In 2013, negotiations between
Canada and the European Union over the Comprehensive Economic and Trade
Agreement, or CETA, included talks on how Newfoundland and Labrador
might be compensated for losses once the deal was implemented. The
provincial PC government of the time insisted on a $400-million
compensation program, noted Byrne.
“I can certainly understand why they’d take that position,” Byrne said.
But
that fund never materialized, and Byrne today blames the loss of
millions in compensation on the province’s minimum processing
requirements — or MPRs — which were established in 2001 to prevent
processors from bypassing fish plants and sending whole fish directly to
market.
“They effectively torpedoed their own arguments,” he said.