The Honourable Gerry Byrne, Minister of Fisheries, Forestry and Agriculture, has mapped out 10 decisions and directions to be taken by the Provincial Government of Newfoundland and Labrador for the management, efficiency, and fairness of the 2025 snow crab fishery. Minister Byrne shared the plan with members of the Fish, Food and Allied Workers (FFAW) union today at their Triannual Convention in Gander.

The plan to advance free enterprise is built on three pillars:

• A return to independent collective bargaining.
• Increased competition through increased processing capacity.
• Strengthened controls over corporate concentration.

Free enterprise through free, collective bargaining

1. As stated in writing by the FFAW, the process of binding arbitration through final-offer selection has not received the necessary support from both parties. Limits to freedoms of assembly and restrictions on collective bargaining must be supported by both parties to continue. At the direct request of the FFAW, price setting will be removed from the authority of the Standing Fish Price Setting Panel under the Fishing Industry Collective Bargaining Act. The Act will be amended for conventional free collective bargaining to be conducted directly between the two parties, including the right to strike or lockout.

Increased competition through increased capacity

2. Outside buyer opportunities will continue in 2025.
3. The Fish Processing Policy Manual has been updated to this effect and will be published this week.
4. Applications for an outside buyer’s licence for 2025 will be accepted before the end of 2024 to allow for a reasonable business model to be explored by prospective licence applicants and for decisions to be made well before the start of the 2025 season.
5. Pre-existing caps on six Newfoundland and Labrador snow crab processing licences and facilities are now lifted, resulting in full capacity to buy according to free market principles.
6. Upon completion of the judicial review of the province’s fishery, additional snow crab licences may be considered in consultation with industry.
7. Production thresholds for snow crab will increase on the island portion of the province from 100 tonnes to 200 tonnes.
8. Minimum production thresholds will shift from a pre-established minimum production in two of five years, to a requirement to meet the minimum production threshold annually. Only clear and reasonable exceptions will be considered.

Free enterprise through control of corporate concentration

9. Changes are currently being drafted to the Fish Processing Licensing Policy Manual to prohibit the transfer of ownership or control of snow crab processing licences, as well as regulatory amendments to the Fish Inspection Act regulations to enact these measures. This will go beyond equity or share purchase arrangements, and include potentially controlling instruments, such as debt, and other financial instruments.

Preventing a reduction in capacity while enforcing these rules

10. In the event of a cancelled snow crab licence, a new licence will be re-offered to the region in which the original licence was located and operated. This will occur through a Request for Proposals licensing process with an increase in competition being the intended result.

While all directions announced today will contribute to more free enterprise in the fishery in 2025, the Provincial Government’s acceptance of the FFAW’s request to re-instate the right of both parties to strike or to lockout should negotiations on prices produce an unacceptable result to either party will be of particular interest to the industry. For more information, refer to the Backgrounder below.

Quote
“The industry has called for more free enterprise. We understand this call and are acting on it. Increased capacity without any clear expectations of production is not real capacity – we are fixing that. Corporate concentration can be a toxin to competition and restricts free enterprise – we are acting on that. Binding decisions on final collective agreement language by third parties, coupled with a right to strike or lockout, are two approaches that are incompatible under any understood collective bargaining principle.  Any move that restricts or is inconsistent with free and fair collective bargaining that does not enjoy the support of both parties – harvesters and buyers – is not fair. All 10 of these decisions made under three pillars for decision making are intended to bring more free enterprise and better efficiency to the 2025 fishery.”
Honourable Gerry Byrne
Minister of Fisheries, Forestry and Agriculture

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BACKGROUNDER

Removing the right to authorize or declare a cessation of business dealings must have the consent of both parties to be consistent with norms and constitutional right to collective bargaining. With clear consent no longer being offered by the FFAW, the Provincial Government has readily agreed in principle to conventional collective bargaining for the setting of prices, including the right to strike or lockout.

As the government discussed directly and extensively with FFAW leadership at the recent meeting of the union’s Inshore Council on October 31, 2024, action on the union’s request would necessitate an end of binding arbitration in setting prices through the final offer section process under the Standing Fish Price Setting Panel. The move to the more conventional free enterprise model of collective bargaining cannot include both elements of binding arbitration and a right to strike or lockout, with the two outcomes being inconsistent with each other.

Under the universal model of freedom of assembly and freedom to bargain collectively, both the FFAW and the Association of Seafood Producers, representing the buyers, would hold a right to strike or to lockout respectively, and negotiations would be conducted directly between the two parties without hearings or binding decisions being made by a third party, the Standing Fish Price Setting Panel.

Amendments to the Fishing Industry Collective Bargaining Act currently requiring price setting to occur under a binding arbitration process are already in drafting stage to allow for the law to reinstate the legal right of both parties to strike or lockout.

All other fisheries will remain governed under the Fishing Industry Collective Bargaining Act and Final Offer Selection. Additional operational capacity is being examined to quicken the hearing and decision making of formal grievances.