Signature Mediation, the company selected by the provincial government to act as the fisheries envoy overseeing the process of enabling Manitoba fishers to sell their harvests without going through the Freshwater Fish Marketing Corporation (FFMC) is holding meetings in Northern Manitoba and other regions in the latter half of November.
The first meeting will be held Nov. 14 at 6 p.m. in the Miner Room at the Burntwood Hotel in Thompson. This will be followed by meetings at the town hall council chamber in Leaf Rapids at 2 p.m. Nov. 15, at the Fisherman’s co-op Building in Norway House at 1 p.m. Nov. 16, at the Chief Peter Beardy Memorial Centre in Grand Rapids at 6 p.m. Nov. 17, and at the Wescana Inn in The Pas at 1 p.m. Nov. 28.
Other meetings are scheduled to be held in Gypsumville, Swan River, Eddystone, Gimli and St. Laurent and planning is underway for meetings in Berens River, Poplar River and Island Lake.
We know fishers have many great ideas about how they can independently market their own harvest and we want to hear from them, said Sustainable Development Minister Cathy Cox in a Nov. 4 news release. These meetings will be an excellent opportunity for stakeholders to come together and share their ideas with the fisheries envoy about how we can move this process forward and create a strong marketing system.
The fisheries envoy is responsible for consulting commercial fishing communities, indigenous groups and businesses to identify important issues and opportunities. The envoy will also identify new regulations, policies and systems needed to establish the new marketing system, as well as to establish a process for effective and sustainable fisheries management, and to make contact with private-sector interests that ant to develop fish processing facilities or marketing co-operatives.
The envoy will provide a final report with recommendations by next spring, Cox said.
2016 Thompson Citizen