The Strathcona Standard

  First Nations in the Campbell River area can now go shopping for commercial fishing licences and quotas, after a new deal signed last week.

  On February 19, the five First Nations in the A-Tlegay Fisheries Society signed a 20-year “Reconciliation Agreement for Fisheries Resources” with federal fisheries Minister Joanne Thompson. The historic agreement wasn’t announced until February 24.

  “Our fisheries have sustained each of our Nations for generations, and we have endured as our long history of sustainable fisheries management has been disrupted in the last century,” says a statement from  A-Tlegay member nations. “This agreement will provide us with additional capacity to continue to build our fisheries economies, to diversify, and to bring economic benefits to our Nations and to the region.”

  The agreement includes the K’ómoks, Kwiakah, Tlowitsis, We Wai Kai, and Wei Wai Kum First Nations, who already manage a fleet of fishing vessels through the fisheries society.

  According to a press release, the agreement will not expand the size of existing commercial fisheries. It says member nations are now able to acquire commercial fishing licences and quota through an “open market process,” but does not explain how that will happen without increasing existing fisheries.

  The Strathcona Standard has reached out to the A-Tlegay Fisheries Society for clarification about the implications of the new agreement.  

  The federal government and the five nations signed a framework agreement in 2021, “to establish a process to advance reconciliation in respect of fisheries resources.” Yesterday’s announcement is the fulfilment of that process.  

  The agreement’s top goal is “reducing socio-economic gaps by creating fuller employment” and “enhancing economic opportunities” by increasing the nations’ ability to participate in commercial fishing.

It also encourages the creation of “community fisheries,” but does not define what they should look like or how they should work.