CONVENERS REPORT FROM
THE FUTURE OF ENDANGERED
COASTAL COMMUNITIES:
BUILDING CAPACITY FOR RENEWAL
A Changing Currents
Dialogue
DIALOGUE SESSION
AUGUST 8-10, 2006
Maureen Woodrow
Department of Geography and
Environmental Studies
Carleton University
and Stages and Stores
Heritage Foundation
Patricia Gallaugher
Centre for Coastal Studies and
Continuing Studies in Science
Simon Fraser University
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The members of the Steering Committee would like to express their gratitude to people and organisations who
provided valuable support over the course of this project.
Second, a heartfelt thank you is extended to all of the participants of the workshop.
Third, the authors of the report wish to express their sincere gratitude to Laurie Wood, along with Devon and
Daniella Wood for their assistance on-site; Herb Bown for his technical assistance and photographs included in this
report; Colin Woodrow Marvin for the photo design on the front cover; Laurie Wood for her assistance with the
preparation of the report; and Jennifer Penikett for design and formatting.
Fourth, a special thank you to Dr. Robert Greenwood, Director of the The Leslie Harris Centre for Regional Policy
and Development for his advice and assistance during the planning process and for acting as facilitator, along with
Kelly Vodden, PhD Candidate, Department of Geography, Simon Fraser University and Maureen Woodrow,
Department of Geography and Environmental Studies, Carleton University.
Finally, a special thank you to the Town of Change Islands for their warm hospitality.
STEERING COMMITTEE
Wallace Bown, General Manager, Stages and Stores Inc.
Patricia Gallaugher, Director, Centre for Coastal Studies, and Director, Continuing Studies in Science,
Simon Fraser University
Richard Haedrich, Professor Emeritus, Biology, Memorial University of NL
Gordon Slade, Executive Director, One Ocean
Kelly Vodden, PhD Candidate, Geography, Simon Fraser University
Maureen Woodrow, Geography and Environmental Studies, Carleton University and Stages and Stores
Heritage Foundation
1
SPONSORS
Including program sponsors, travel sponsors, report sponsors and in-kind sponsors
Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency
Cape Breton University, Tompkins Institute for Human Values and Technology
Carleton University, Department of Geography and Environmental Studies
Conservation International
Fisheries and Oceans Canada
Fogo Island Co-op
Fogo Island Development Association
Food Fish and Allied Workers Union
Frangipani Foundation
Government of Newfoundland and Labrador
Department of Fisheries and Aquaculture
Department of Innovation, Trade and Rural Development
Department of Tourism, Culture and Recreation
Rural Secretariat
Grupo Latino-Americano de Exportadores (GRULEX)
Kittiwake Economic Development Corporation
Memorial University of Newfoundland
Dean of Science
The Leslie Harris Centre of Regional Policy and Development
Marine Institute
Ocean Sciences Centre
National Film Board of Canada
Newfoundland Aquaculture Industry Association
Newfoundland and Labrador Outfitters Association
New Wood Manufacturers Inc.
Ocean Management Research Network, Linking Science and Local Knowledge Working Group
One Ocean
Simon Fraser University
Changing Currents and the Centre for Coastal Studies
Stages and Stores Heritage Foundation
Université du Québec a Rimouski
University of New Brunswick, Department of Geodesy and Geomatics Engineering
WWF-Canada
2
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Preface
4
Key Issues
5
Opening
6
Highlights of the Opening Address – Part I
The Honourable Loyala Hearn, Minister of Fisheries and Oceans Canada
6
How Can Coastal Communities be Viable?
8
Weighing the Options for the Future of Coastal Community Economies
12
Opening Address – Part II
The Honourable Tom Rideout, Newfoundland and Labrador Minister of Fisheries and Aquaculture
12
Fisheries and Aquaculture
14
A Sustainable Future for Small Coastal Communities
David Thomson, International Consultant
14
Is the Fishery a Viable Option for the Future?
Bill Broderick, Barb Neis, Kevin Anderson
17
Discussion
19
Is Aquaculture an Option?
Cyr Couturier, Brian Meaney, Jill Bennett, Geoff Perry, Ian Fleming
21
Discussion
25
Roasted Minke Whale with Cranberries: Challenges to environmentalism in conserving diversity of life and the
diversity of human cultures
Terry Glavin, Fisheries Writer/Researcher and Marine Conservation Advisor, Sierra Club of Canada, BC Chapter
27
What Other Options Exist?
Todd Wight, Juanita Keel-Ryan, Merv Wiseman, Greg McLeod
30
How do you diversify to enable a sustainable coastal community? Centreville as a case study
Shane Noble, New Wood Manufacturers Inc.
30
Discussion
34
Resource Conservation in Costa Rica
Antonio Arreaga-Valdes, Honorary Consul General, Consulado General de Costa Rica
How Can We Move Forward and Act on the Realistic Options While Ensuring Sustainable Use of Resources and Ecosystems?
36
37
The Enabling Conditions for Ecosystem Governance
Stephen Olsen, Director, Coastal Resources Center, Metcalf Institute for Marine and Environmental Reporting,
University of Rhode Island
37
Discussion
39
Science Perspective
Krista Baker, Sue Nichols, Ben Davis, Shane Mahoney, Joe Wroblewski
40
Discussion
44
Industry Perspective
Derek Butler, John Wickham, Shane Noble, Herb Bown, Beverley Stevens
46
Discussion
50
More Bathrooms than Children: The impact of population change
Alison Earle, Assistan Deputy Minister, Rural Secretariat, Government of Newfoundland and Labrador
52
Community Perspective
Steve Plante, Freeman Compton, Bernice Diamond, Derm Flynn
55
Discussion
58
Institutional Perspective
Bill Grandy, Kevin Anderson, Zita Cobb, Gordon Slade
60
Discussion
64
Where Do We Go From Here? Suggestions For Action
66
List of Participants
68
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PREFACE
PREFACE
The goal of the Change Islands 2006
workshop was to examine the policies,
actions and conditions under which
diversification and growth can take place in
coastal communities to promote
sustainability. The dialogue was based on
the recognition that the preservation of
coastal communities depends on a
combination of the policy and legislative
framework in which rural communities are
placed and the communities themselves
who need to develop their own vision for
the future by understanding their history,
strengths and weaknesses, and who need to
develop capacity to mobilize internal and
external resources to meet the challenges.
To achieve this goal, representatives from
federal, provincial and municipal
governments both elected and at the policy
levels, international and national ocean and
coastal community experts, natural and
social scientists from universities Canadawide, and NGOs and coastal community
business operators came together for three
days of dialogue with the residents of
Change Islands and focused on moving
from policy to action. They identified and
assessed realistic options and examined
how communities can rebuild their capacity
and sustain their livelihoods and
communities.
This workshop followed the approach of the
2005 dialogue, Changing Currents: Charting
a Course of Action for the Future of Oceans
(www.sfu.ca/coastalstudies/
changingcurrents.htm) workshop. The
catalysts for the dialogue included key
presentations and case studies that
identified challenges and demonstrated that
positive change can occur. The general
questions below guided the overall
dialogue.
What are the challenges to sustainability in
rural communities today?
What changes are needed?
What are the obstacles/resisters and
challenges affecting change?
What are the enablers of change?
In each of the focused sessions similar but
more specific questions were posed that
directly addressed the options for the
future. The key points raised during the
dialogue are reflected in the report that
follows. In preparing this report we have
provided a summary of each presentation
and dialogue, and provided the voice of the
participants through direct quotations. The
text reflects the words as spoken at the
meeting. At the conclusion of the dialogue
participants identified suggestions for
action which are included at the end of the
report. Further details including the full
program and some presentations are
available on the website www.sfu.ca/
coastalstudies/changeislands2006.htm.
We believe that the holding of face to face
discussions in small coastal communities is a
mutual learning experience; community
residents become exposed to the ideas and
possibilities and workshop participants gain
a new understanding of local knowledge
and the challenges of living in a small
coastal community. This dialogue follows on
the August 2003 Change Islands workshop
which focused on the vulnerabilities in rural
communities and what adaptations were
taking place. The workshop was co-hosted
by the Centre for Coastal Studies, Simon
Fraser University, and the Stages and Stores
Foundation and the Town of Change
Islands, Change Islands, NL. A list of
sponsorships is provided on page 2.
4
KEY ISSUES
Out-migration of youth, aging population, and lack of workforce for the future
Full-time employment required to attract and youth
Establish clear goals – communities are responsible for their own destiny
Most successful initiatives are driven by communities, not government
Communities need to coordinate efforts with other communities to achieve common goals
Think in terms of the governance structures for full participation in the management
process
Governance and capacity building go hand in hand
Capacity building is needed at all levels, individual, community and institutional
Identify and support leaders at all levels, particularly community
Outcome-based planning, monitoring and evaluation of programs needed
Diversify – the fishery is only part of the future coastal community economy;
Modernize the fishery – examine policies and strategies for viable fisheries
Look at community quotas – there are doubts about Individual Quotas
Health and age of the workforce may limit the capacity to develop the fishery
More targeted science needed to understand the fisheries, particularly the cod fishery
Find ways/structures to link community knowledge with science
Real commitment to the precautionary approach required
Be cautious when scaling up the aquaculture industry
Build capacity at the community level for entrepreneurial skills
Excessive government regulations impede progress by small businesses
Coordinate government services at all levels for rural communities
Both federal and provincial governments are urban-focused. Rural communities are being
neglected
Consider cost sharing oil industry revenues similar to the Shetland Islands or Norway
5
OPENING
HIGHLIGHTS OF THE OPENING ADDRESS –
PART I
The Honourable Loyola Hearn, Minister of
Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Ottawa, ON
At this informal evening dinner in the Society
of United Fishermen’s Hall, workshop
participants and Change Islanders came
together to enjoy a meal and share views on
the future of coastal communities. The
Mayor of Change Islands, Bernice Diamond,
welcomed the Federal Minister of Fisheries
and Oceans, Loyola Hearn, the Provincial
Minister for Fisheries and Aquaculture, Tom
Rideout, and the member for the area and
leader of the Provincial opposition, Gerry
Reid, as well the participants at the
workshop and local residents. Larry Hurley, a
local fisherman and President of the Society
of United Fishermen on the Islands spoke of
the historic and continued significance of
the hall.
The Minister then opened the workshop and
spoke personally about the value of the
fisheries and life in rural coastal
communities. He still lives in the community
in which he grew up on the southern shore
of the Avalon Peninsula, Renews. His
community, much like Change Islands, was a
typical coastal community where fishing was
what people did and also how they lived.
“The life was good but hard and our parents
encouraged us to do well in school, get an
education, and move away from the hard
life. Many of us did pursue our education.
Many left the community. With advancing
fishing technologies and decreasing stocks,
fewer people were needed in the fishery so
others left to work in Ontario or Alberta. The
nature of my community and others like it
changed.”
“We are here to talk about how we can
shape and mold a new future for these
communities in the fishing industry and in
6
other ways to ensure that we retain the rural
soul of our province. I am here as Minister of
Fisheries and Oceans so I will talk a little
about what the federal government is doing
to ensure that there is a future for the fishery
in rural coastal communities.”
The challenges we face
“As Minister of Fisheries and Oceans I face
great challenges but I do not consider them
problems because problems annoy us where
as challenges inspire us, e.g., the loss of the
cod and its impact on coastal communities.”
“We have to move on. Do we have to shut
the door on the fishery? Absolutely not! We
need to find ways to establish a fishery that
is sustainable and profitable and for that we
need sustainable fishing communities. Is
that possible? The answer is yes. It will not
be like the community you or I grew up in
but together we have to find ways to ensure
that our fishery and communities are
sustainable.”
The cod crash brought another challenge
since many people had to leave their
communities and possibly the island, to find
work. But traditionally Newfoundlanders
have had to go away to work; e.g., seal
fishing, fishing Labrador cod, or working in
the woods.
“We all have to understand that
conservation is part of our pathway to
sustainability. We have to conserve the basic
stocks that we have, we can’t let any of them
go down any farther. We have to let them
grow, but in the meantime if we live in
fishing communities in a fishing province, we
have to live.”
On the opening of this year’s cod fishery
His decision to open the cod fishery this
year he said was controversial – and he
described it as an ‘experiment’. The
decision was based on advice received from
people involved in all aspects of the fishery
including scientists and community
people. The decision was “based on all
the facts, including the opinion of most of
the scientists, … [which] was that the
fishery on the base stocks, which may or
may not be related to the offshore stocks
… could sustain a small fishery.” He has
challenged the people to take some
ownership. “If I am going to open up the
fishery, people ask if I am going to police
it. I shouldn’t have to, it is not mine, it is
yours and it is yours to look after. If you
aren’t going to do that … then I’ll close it
down.” And it appears that there has
been buy in, “I have had so many people
say this year that we are going to make
sure that this resource is not destroyed,
because there is this year, and there is
next year and there are many years to
come.”
We have to move on. Do we have to shut the
He recognizes the need for more scientific
information about the stocks and about
the habitat and other components of the
ecosystem, “We need to know a lot more
about habitat and generally about the
whole ecosystem. We have to start
preserving this because when we destroy
one species it has an effect on the other
components of the ecosystem - but within
that whole ecosystem we also have to
manage each individual stock.”
He highlighted the importance of working
together to solve the problems and identify
new ways of doing things and new
opportunities. He cited as an example the
recent Fisheries Summit which dealt with
marketing and harvesting challenges among
others as “the most positive fishing summit
meeting I have ever attended … People
came to talk about where we go from here
and not complain about where we were
yesterday.” From the harvesting point of
view they dealt with questions such as “what
is available and when is the best time, what
is the best way to catch them, what kinds of
boats do we need, how do we look at too
many people chasing too few fish, how do
we rationalize it without hurting anybody.”
By addressing these challenges he is hopeful
that this will result in “a sustainable fishery, a
profitable fishery, and sustainable
communities”.
What do we have to change?
In terms of regulations for individual
fisheries we should question some of the
standing regulations and look for more
flexibility – this could lead to improved
quality and better market prices; e.g., with
respect to the opening of the crab fishery
“Why is it that we say the season must
open the first of May and end at the end
of June? This year we opened the crab
fishery and we closed it earlier than in
previous years – many of the fishermen
caught the crab they wanted and we
ended the season before the soft shells.”
The highest quality product is critical to
improve the return from the market, he
stressed – for example, with the capelin
door on the fishery? Absolutely not! We need
to find ways to establish a fishery that is
sustainable and profitable and for that we
need sustainable fishing communities. Is that
possible? The answer is yes. It will not be like
the community you or I grew up in but
together we have to find ways to ensure that
our fishery and communities are sustainable.
fishery. “Is it better to go out and land 20,000
lbs of capelin in good shape and make four
trips or land 80,000 lbs and throw away half
and get nothing for the other half. We have
to start using a little bit of common sense.”
In summary he stressed that we must all play
a part in ensuring that coastal communities
stay alive … “your mayors, the business
people who are involved, people with ideas,
people with vision. But we cannot sit and
complain about the past - we have to look to
the future and the future is what we make it.”
Note: the cod fishery was opened for recreational fishery with a daily limit of 5 fish per person/15 per boat for a 5 week
period (1Aug-4Sept) and also for individual quotas for licenced fishers of 3000 lbs. in their respective bays.
http://www.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/media/newsrel/2006/hq-ac14_e.htm
7
Following the minister’s reflections, Change
Islanders joined the workshop participants in
breakout groups to discuss the future of
coastal communities using the questions
below to guide their discussion
How can Coastal Communities be Viable?
What changes are needed?
What are the obstacles/resisters and challenges to effecting
change?
What are the enablers of change?
What are the feasible time scales for change?
General Statement for all questions
Overall it is important to note that every
coastal community is different, some are
closer to cities, some have more resources,
some are attractive to tourism, others not,
some are close to roads and
telecommunications services and others not,
and some have trees and mountains while
others are located on bare rock. How do we
answer these questions to cover all coastal
communities?
What changes are needed?
Meaningful role for
communities
There must be a
meaningful role for
communities in decisionmaking processes; any
solutions that
communities might
come up with have to
come from the bottom.
Trying to send in people
from outside the
community with an
agenda is simply not
going to help.
8
Devolution of community stewardship must
be built on understanding of the history and
strengths of the community. It is important
to recognize what our traditions are.
Communities also have to agree among
themselves on what their problems are and
also agree on the solutions.
The fishery
We need to find a way to have a fishery that
works within communities, recognizing that
most of the communities cannot be viable
without a fishery. We need to acknowledge
that fishing will remain part of the
community economy, but we also have to
look at other opportunities, either nontraditional fishing or utilizing other
resources. We need to modernize our
fisheries rules; for example, if groundfish
quotas are not used, then should they lose
the quota? We also need to respond to
fisheries innovation
There has to be a real commitment to a
precautionary approach and a precautionary
principle when it comes to using coastal and
ocean resources.
Low birth rates and significant
out-migration are two of the greatest
obstacles to the future of coastal
communities.
SUMMARY OF THE CHALLENGES IDENTIFIED BY PARTICIPANTS
Declining youth population
Low birth rates and significant out migration are two of the greatest obstacles to the future of coastal
communities. It is absolutely critical to have a strategy to convince young people to stay in or return to their
community. “Our young people are getting educated but they are not coming back – most people get their
education and go to Ontario or Alberta because the work is not here”. “With young people moving on or
moving away who is going to take on the existing industries and the existing ideas”.
Lack of community leadership
Communities need someone to act as an advocate. Once you get that person in place often they don’t have
the support and capacity to continue to do the job that needs to be done and they may quickly burn out.
How do you meet that challenge?
Erosion of morale
There is an erosion of morale in many coastal communities. “The fighting spirit seems to be gone and how
do you overcome something like that?”
Maintaining infrastructure
Without the population base it is difficult to maintain infrastructure in communities (e.g. health care). “The
people coming back are mostly in retirement; when they do come back it is as an aging population; do we
have the resources and infrastructure in place to help people as they grow older?”
Structure and management of the fishery
There needs to be a change in attitudes in the fishery. What is the most efficient fishery in human terms? And
economically what would be a reasonable rate of return? “In terms of timeframe and viability, looking for a
reasonable rate of return on the fishery, there are people in the fishery that expect to make a million dollars,
but they are working in a natural environment that is heavily degraded. Is that a reasonable assumption, and
are policy frameworks that expect and allow people to make windfall profits out of fisheries sustainable
policies?”
We need to re-examine fisheries management and identify alternative strategies and policies that may help
us to move forward with a viable fishery.
We have to deal with the lack of secondary processing in the communities, where everything is sent outside
for processing possibly because of cheap labour.
What are the challenges/obstacles?
See the box above for summary of the
challenges identified by participants
What are the enablers of change?
Participants identified numerous factors
that would enable changes. These factors
fit into several broad categories:
devolution of power to the community
level; building capacity by strengthening
human resources; ideas and innovation;
new approaches to industry; and
institutional changes. A detailed list is
summarized in the box on Page 10.
9
WHAT ARE THE ENABLERS OF CHANGE?
Devolution
• devolution to the local level
• identify what it is that each community wants and then get ownership so that they can work
together and identify what they need to do to make the community viable
• examine community based models that are maybe not being taken into account
• possible regionalization – but on the appropriate scale “Regionalization is fine to knit
communities together and for supporting one another rather than having a sense of competition
between them. It is a great goal, but if you try to do it on too big a scale it is not going to work”.
People
• need strong/capable leadership within the community
• build community self respect
• invest in women “women are the backbone of getting some of the things done; how do you
invest back in that?”
• draw people back to communities, “Do we advertise and promote that we have a safe way of life
to raise our children, that there is family support here?”
Ideas and innovation
• make innovation and new ideas easier
• change the rules and regulations so they are applicable at the local level and get past the
barriers at provincial and federal levels that hinder innovation
• identify ways to help people take risks; eg., local credit institutions
• diversify “Intelligent diversification” was suggested – diversifying into numerous sectors rather
than everyone switching over to one or a few new livelihoods.
Approach to industry
• adopt community friendly policies
• adopt appropriate and sustainable policies
• need sustainable industry employment
• develop markets, niche markets
• need to use local resources and not import everything; “… be a little more self-reliant, instead
of importing something where we can do it ourselves, looking for niche markets and access for
markets... that is where the outside help is needed, to get access to markets.”
Institutional changes
• an education system needs to be implemented by the government, in cities, making people
aware of their connection to the natural resources - to raise awareness on the links between urban
life and coastal communities/ecosystems. “products from the ocean have to be managed in an
ecological way, a sustainable way so that everybody benefits. It may cost a bit more but
sustainability of the oceans is worth it. Rural communities and everyone benefits if we think
conservation from the ocean to the dinner plate”.
• adopt a government run system of payment for ecosystem services; e.g., Costa Rica “If they
want fishermen to manage stocks in a sustainable manner, they need to pay to have these people
be caretakers of sustainable stocks”
What are the appropriate time scales for
change?
Over the short term there is an immediate
need to halt the outflow of people from
communities. We also need some short-term
successes to build up hope and to know it
can be done. Over the long term it is
important to keep the commitment and
spirit alive. We need long-term vision, goals
10
and objectives, one of which should be
groundfish stock recovery.
Special discussion on reopening the cod
fishery
A number of participants suggested that the
opening of the fishery this summer should
not be classified as an ‘experiment’. “The
reality is that we know of no scientists that
think this northern cod fishery should have
been reopened, and there was concern
that having reopened it, it is going to be
much more difficult to close again”.
They raised the issue of the precautionary
approach and the process in Canada for
listing a ‘species at risk’. “The decision
was made immediately prior to the
election not to list cod”. They noted that
the justification for not listing cod was that
we could achieve the same thing without
listing. “Well in fact what have we done?
Are we doing what we need to do with the
existing regulations or do we need to
revisit the code of discretion? Who was
involved in those discussions? Why is it
that so few people stood up in those
discussions and said that “yes cod are
‘endangered’’”. We have to look at this
seriously because no one had the courage
to stand up and say that in any public
meetings”.
They identified the knowledge gaps with
respect to recovery of the codfish; for
example, “What will it take for the stocks to
recover? How long will it take to have an
appropriately sized spawner stock of fish?”
They noted that the fish belong not just to
Canada but the world and Canada has an
obligation to manage these stocks
responsibly. They expressed their concerns
about other stocks as well. “It is not just
about cod, we mismanage cod and we
continue to mismanage other species
including crab and shrimp, salmon, herring,
lumpfish and capelin. There is a real risk that
we could lose it all.”
They noted that the fish belong not just to
Canada but the world and Canada has an
obligation to manage these stocks responsibly.
11
WEIGHING THE OPTIONS FOR THE FUTURE OF
COASTAL COMMUNITY ECONOMIES
OPENING ADDRESS – PART II
meetings are released there will be broader
consultation with industry and communities.
The Honourable Tom Rideout,
Newfoundland and Labrador Minister of
Fisheries and Aquaculture, St. John’s, NL
Mr. Rideout stressed that the future
sustainability of rural communities is a top
priority for the government of
Newfoundland and Labrador. He noted the
long history of the fishery which “is the
backbone of the rural economy”. In the past
the challenge was not catching the fish but
having the capacity to process and market
the fish. Now the challenges are related to
the markets and the declines in the value of
seafood products and competition from
countries such as China. It is an industry in
transition.
Moving forward with the fishery
The question is how to move forward in this
industry with realistic solutions and adapt to
the changing fishery, while exploring “new
opportunities within the industry. … We all
have a responsibility to ensure that the
fishery remains an integral part of our
economy.”
As Minister Hearn had noted, the Fisheries
Summit held in May (2006) was a very
productive meeting and they “were all
encouraged by the candor and conviction of
all the participants”. Since the Summit there
have been numerous follow up meetings (17
in total) and when the reports on these
The question is how to move forward in this
industry with realistic solutions and adapt to the
changing fishery, while exploring “new
opportunities within the industry and within our
economy. … We all have a responsibility to ensure
that the fishery remains an integral part of our
economy.”
12
Among the important issues facing the
fishery are the recovery and protection of
cod stocks and effective marketing
strategies for this fishery. This is a long-term
goal. The government is collaborating with
Memorial University on a cod recovery
strategy and is committed to seeing the
strategy through to implementation. In
addition, as the fishery is a global industry
new approaches and strategies to marketing
will be required.
New opportunities with aquaculture
The aquaculture industry presents new
opportunities for growth in the rural
economy in Newfoundland and Labrabor.
“While the fishery has been the common
industry for the last 500 years, the
aquaculture sector has become the shining
star in terms of prospects for rural
development.” Currently, there are over 50
companies involved in soft shellfish
aquaculture operating over 150 sites, and
mussel aquaculture is rapidly expanding
with a production of 3,157 tons and an
associated value of $7 million, in 2005.
Salmon aquaculture production was 5,000
tons in 2005 with a value of approximately
$27 million. “The industry is steadily
expanding with the involvement of some
local, national and international companies.”
There is more room for expansion of this
industry in Newfoundland and Labrador. To
date, only 10% of the potential suitable sites
for aquaculture have been utilized. An
aquaculture investment program has been
established by the government to facilitate
development of the industry. Not only will
the program assist in increasing the
production of the aquaculture products but
there will also be spin-off opportunities in
the processing, manufacturing and supply
service sectors.
Other programs
Other programs that have been initiated
by the government to enable progress in
rural communities include changes in
regulations and licencing policies for
some fisheries. For example, by April 2008
all seals landed in Newfoundland and
Labrador must undergo full primary
processing to the tanned stage in the
province. “By implementing this new
policy we are ensuring that the extra
labour required for tanning seals is
provided right here in the rural regions of
our province.” There have also been
changes implemented in the capelin
fishery. Those holding capelin licences
must now “engage in full utilization
practices for products such as silage,
composting, fish meal or any other
legitimate alternative to ensure that we
are maximizing associated employment
and revenue generating opportunities”.
“While the fishery has been the common
industry for the last 500 years, the aquaculture
sector has become the shining star in terms of
prospects for rural development.”
“This work will require the involvement of many
ocean and coastal stakeholders in our province.
This will allow our government to make best
use of the massive ocean resources that
surround Newfoundland and Labrador.”
In summary, Mr. Rideout referred to the
increasing demands being placed on our
ocean resources. He noted that ocean
industries are not as restricted as they
were in the past and thus there is an
excellent opportunity for growth. It is
important though that there is an
integrated approach to this growth and to
address this government has allocated
more resources for coastal and oceans
management and to prepare an ocean
strategy and policy framework. “This work
will require the involvement of many
ocean and coastal stakeholders in our
province. This will allow our government
to make best use of the massive ocean
resources that surround Newfoundland
and Labrador.”
13
FISHERIES AND AQUACULTURE
A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE FOR SMALL COASTAL
COMMUNITIES
David Thomson, International Consultant,
former fisherman, past lecturer (College of
Fisheries in Newfoundland), Aberdeen,
Scotland
Mr. Thomson opened by describing the
continuing threats to the future of coastal
communities, globally. The form that these
threats take varies from country to country
and region to region, but includes effects of
international market forces and legal
measures. In addition, there are threats of an
environmental nature including over-fishing,
global warming, deforestation and pollution,
among others.
The value of coastal communities
He noted that coastal communities have a
value “that cannot be assessed in monetary
terms alone. They are a national asset for
tourism, for rural sustainability, and for
strategic issues like security of our shores
generally and especially in remote locations.
And they have a cultural and historic
significance”. … “Nowhere is that more true
than in Newfoundland. The wealth of
traditional songs, jig tunes and sea shanties
was born and nurtured in hundreds of small
outports and bays that made up for their
lack of urban sophistication by their
enormous poetic and musical talents which
expressed the heart and soul of
Newfoundland, its traditions and its values.”
He described fishing communities and the
small-scale fisheries in general as being
based on a way of life rather than on
economic opportunity. “… small fishers and
their communities are in their business for
the long haul. They have generational roots
in their way of life and these are valued
more than temporary affluence. This is at
variance with modern economic
development theory that worships the
power of the market place. But it provides a
stability that is absent from most profitmotivated enterprises.”
Initiatives that protect coastal communities
There are some initiatives underway
internationally to protect and nurture coastal
communities. For example, in North
America there are ‘community quotas’ which
ensure that aboriginal communities have
legal ownership and access to adjacent fish
stocks. In Japan there are numbers of fishery
cooperatives that manage local fisheries and
in Indonesia the small-scale fishers and fish
farmers have been protected in recognition
of their contribution to social stability. Again
Norway was cited as taking the lead in
protecting coastal communities through
government policy, “regardless of the cost”
and “today along its NE coast and the
Lofoten Islands those small villages remain
active and viable”. Mr. Thomson stressed
that “the first requirement then for a
sustainable future is political will on the part
of national and provincial authorities”.
Resource sustainability
Mr. Thomson discussed the elements
necessary to ensure success in achieving
sustainable resource use, including the need
for an integrated approach to development
and including all the community resources in
totality, rather than single sectors such as
fisheries. “The integrated, total-ecosystem
approach sits well with small communities
where income-earning may involve several
skills and different products.” A new science
Coastal Zone Management (CZM) has
developed to focus on the issues related to
“this unique area bordering land and sea,
14
which has so much to offer us, is under
threat, and in need of careful study and
wise protection”.
“A fleet of one or two dozen boats can keep
Threats to fisheries
secondary industry dies from lack of
Grab for access and control of fish stocks
Mr. Thomson referred to the complexity
of fisheries in today’s world. He described
the use of quotas as a means for
restricting access but noted that in the
North Sea this has led to dumping or
discarding of 600,000 tons of fish at sea.
He noted that Individual Transferable
Quotas (ITQs) have created a trade in the
entitlement to fish. “This trade is not just
a trade in fish (fish that have not yet been
spawned or hatched or grown to maturity)
- it is a trade in fishermen’s jobs and
communities’ futures.” He argued that
wherever ITQs have been applied “their
introduction has been followed by
massive stock reduction and
concentration of fishery activity and profit
into fewer and fewer hands. The victims
have largely been the small-scale
traditional fishers and their communities.”
Introduction of restrictions that damage
the local economy
It is important to have policies in place
that do not penalize outports or put them
at an unfair disadvantage compared with
big business. He noted the importance of
community access to the resource for the
local economy. “A fleet of one or two
dozen boats can keep a village alive, but
once they go the secondary industry dies
from lack of business, and the tertiary
services also suffer.”
Imposition of sanctuaries that deny
community involvement
While marine protected areas and
sanctuaries can be a useful tool to help
the recovery of fish stocks there are
problems when the areas are negotiated
without prior scientific studies and with no
attempt to engage and consult with the
local communities. Mr. Thomson referred
to the three fundamental principles that
WWF and IUCN seek to apply when
considering areas of marine protection:
a village alive, but once they go the
business, and the tertiary services also
suffer.”
there must be sound scientific evidence that
the measures are needed and will be
effective; there must be full and open
consultation with local fishers and their
communities, and their agreement; and, if
some fishers or stakeholders are to lose
income as a result of the intervention, then
there must be adequate compensation.
Economic bias in favour of high impact
fleets
“One would have thought that authorities
and governments in their efforts to reduce
pressure on fish stocks would restrict and
control the operations of the large-impact
fleets - the huge stern trawlers, purse
seiners, midwater trawlers, and ocean going
long liners. But no - in most cases the tactic
is to reduce the low-impact fleets, to
penalise the small operators, and in some
cases to allow their fishing rights to be
acquired by the big companies.” Generally
governments appear to favour high-impact
fishing units, believing them to be more
economically efficient. This is also true when
it comes to subsidies. Here one has to take
into account that any government service
such as research, protection, statistical and
administrative services can be considered a
‘subsidy’. Experts have found that the most
subsidized part of the global fishing fleet is
the large-scale sector. Figure 1 on page 16
compares the large and small scale fishery.
15
Figure 1. ICLARM: David Thomson’s illustration above created widespread awarness of the efficiency of
small-scale fisheries; however, some donor agencies still feel obliged to “upgrade” them into inefficient
large-scale fisheries! The table above has been brought up-to-date by courtesy of Dr. Armin Lindquist,
Assistant Director-General (Fisheries Department, FAO), using latest (1986) FAO fisheries statistics and
economics data and 1988 prices. (table re-formatted by Kim Ang, FAO project I.T. mapping and data
specialist, 2007)
A review of Figure 1 shows that relative to
the large-scale fishery, the small-scale fishery
employs significantly more people, has a
significantly lower capital outlay per job,
produces almost all fish for human
consumption rather than industrial
production to meal and oil as is the case for
the large-scale fishery, consumes ten times
less fuel to catch fish, and has almost no
bycatch.
16
Economic sustainability
Mr. Thomson commented on the effect of
unrestricted market forces, which have
negative effects in the underdeveloped
world and could happen in North America
and Europe if safeguards are not put in
place together with measures that “afford
some economic protection to small
communities”. In terms of technology he
noted that small communities and small-
scale enterprises can benefit significantly
from low-cost operations such as cell
phones, satellite navigators, computers
and alternative energy technologies such
as solar and wind power. He commented
also on the need for integration of local
economies “For small or scattered rural
communities, integration with other local
economic activities offers much promise…
The type of vehicle or structure utilized is
less important than the commitment of
the various stakeholders, and the degree
of trust built up between them.” To ensure
economic sustainability it is critical that
small producers “add maximum value to
their products and services. … It can be a
general goal for all of the community’s
activities - product quality and product
value”.
Social sustainability
Communities must have “the authority to
make changes for the better, the people
must be free from over-control by
provincial or regional authorities” … “In
my involvement in development work in
over 50 countries I have rarely come
across a government that does not claim
to be in favour of devolution and
decentralization. … But, in my travels I
have seen little evidence of genuine
progress in that direction.” Without this
empowerment in place it is difficult for
small communities to move forward in
planning for resource, economic and
social sustainability.
Mr. Thomson concluded with suggestions
that may guide communities and their
entrepreneurs, including:
• develop local networks – form
partnerships with other communities in
the area
• add value wherever possible
• identify niche markets – “go for quality
and variety and specialized items”
• maximize all possible opportunities “…
one or two reasonably profitable
activities can be supplemented by three
or four additional money earners that
could make a huge overall difference”
• select technology with care
• speak up for your community
DIALOGUE CIRCLE
Is the Fishery a Viable Option for the Future?
What species?
Where?
How healthy are the stocks?
What types of employment might be associated with
this?
Will there be a workforce available?
Bill Broderick, Director, Inshore Sector, Fish,
Food and Allied Workers, NL, addressed
the question: How can we have a
sustainable fishery?
Although many people in the industry do not
see a future he believes there is a future and
the small boat sector is the most viable way
to proceed. It creates the most jobs
particularly if the fish can be harvested
adjacent to and processed in the local
community. Generally, with the exception of
the boats that must fish outside the 200-mile
limit, larger boats will collapse the industry
(“We have already gone that route so let’s
not make the mistake again.”) and ITQs have
not worked in Ireland and Iceland and would
not work here – they benefit the large-scale
fishery and hamper the small-scale fleet.
Barb Neis, Professor, Sociology, Memorial
University of Newfoundland, St. John’s, NL
How healthy are the stocks?
There continues to be a dispute between the
scientists and fishermen with respect to the
status of the stocks. “There has been some
progress but in my view science is still
following fisheries around.” Fifteen years
after the moratorium we do not know
enough about the stocks, the stock structure,
location of spawning areas and nursery
grounds and about critical habitat. It is
important to invest in ‘science’; the healthy
Eastport lobster stocks are an example of a
17
”What would the value of the northern cod
be if we got that fishery back?”
fishery based on good science, compared
with the St. John Bay lobster fishery on the
West coast of the island, where the science
investment was not made and the stocks are
collapsing. We also need to invest in
stewardship “We have fewer fish that have
to be managed at a microscale, we need
community-based science”.
How can we have a sustainable fishery?
Are we managing for recovery? ”What would
the value of the northern cod be if we got
that fishery back?” We have to protect the
spawners, yet we do not have a strategy in
place to do this. The recreational fishery that
opened this summer on cod is substantial,
and there is great concern that they are
going to target the big fish, the ‘mother
fish’. “But we have absolutely no data from
that - we don’t even know how many fish are
being caught. This is a high-risk strategy for
a fishery that is in serious trouble.”
The alternative
“Was there an alternative? Is there
something else that we could have done
with that money? Perhaps the $5 million
could be used to employ a few thousand
fishermen for three weeks. We could have
hired a boat and we could have done
acoustic surveys, and we could do all these
things to help us learn where the fish are,
and where the local stocks are. We had
indications in 1995 that there were probably
local stocks in Bonavista Bay but there was
no follow up research. We have indications
of the grey stock in White Bay and there has
been no follow up research. That work
should have been done ten years ago. We
should be doing it now. And acoustic surveys
do not kill fish.”
“But we have absolutely no data from that -
we don’t even know how many fish are being
caught. This is a high-risk strategy for a fishery
that is in serious trouble.”
18
Are we ready to have a viable fishery from
the point of view of health and safety? and
Will there be a workforce available?
Although we have made a substantial
investment in fishing safety in recent years
there are still problems. “We have got boats
that are not particularly well-designed in
terms of stability and working platforms and
safety of working platforms. We have been
studying the movement of those vessels
when we should have been designing
vessels with safe work platforms. Nobody
has been taking that into account except for
the fishermen who are struggling within the
regulations to try and manage a work
platform that is unsafe”. In the shellfish
processing industry there are a number of
serious occupational health risks including
asthma and musco-skeletal problems.
There has been no systematic approach to
prevention and there is limited diagnostic
and rehabilitation capacity in rural areas.
The health and the average age of the
workforce may limit the capacity to develop
the fishery. There is an aging work force with
a substantial burden of injury and disease,
and they are working longer because there
are few young people coming into the
industry. “I would recommend an early
retirement program as one of the ways to
move forward. The industry is saying no, no
because ‘we don’t have any more workers’,
but these are workers who need to get out
of this industry. They are putting themselves
at serious risk by staying in it and we owe it
to them. We dropped the ball for thirty
years and we did nothing to prevent
occupational hazards.”
Kevin Anderson, Staff Officer, Regional
Treaty Negotiations and Implementation,
Resource Management Division, Fisheries
and Oceans Canada, St. John’s, NL
What species?
The Newfoundland fishery revolves around
the migration patterns of cod and other
groundfish species and capelin. The more
sedentary species, crab and shrimp and
shellfish in general emerged as fisheries
throughout the 1990s. This led to a
movement towards larger vessels and the
inshore fishery has developed the ‘34 11’.
Prior to 1990, 25% of the landed value of
fish in Newfoundland and Labrador came
from shellfish; in 2004 that number had
reached 84%.
What is the status of the stocks?
Groundfish remain at very low levels,
although there are some positive
indicators of returns in some of the bays
and coastal areas. Crab stocks are down
from the peak in 1999. There is an increase
in pelagic stocks with a recent quota for
Atlantic mackerel of 70,000 tons. There is
also an increase in the size and availability
of capelin in the inshore areas.
How can we have a sustainable fishery?
The bottom up approach such as with the
Eastport lobster is very important to
sustainability and a community approach
to addressing fisheries issues has worked.
An example is the inshore crab fishery in
Newfoundland and Labrador; they are
protected for vessels less than 35 ft and 10
-12 miles from shore. Initiatives are also in
place or underway to establish refuge
areas for crab such as with the Eastport
lobster – one has been proposed for
Notre Dame Bay and there is a possibility
for Bonavista Bay. “People would like to
see what the indicators are for setting
aside areas for no fishing for crab to see
what impact that would have on the
resource of the local area”.
Will there be a workforce available?
There is a significant problem emerging
due to the aging populations in the
harvesting and processing sectors. For
example, of the 13,380 fish harvesters
registered in the province less than 4,000
are under the age of 35. This will be a
challenge for this industry in the future.
work is underway in crab survey and halibut
tagging programs. In some cases fishermen
have much better acoustic scientific capacity
than DFO. There was a stewardship pilot
project in Placentia Bay in 2006 that involved
participation of all levels of government.
It is important to go beyond collecting the
data however; fishermen have to be able “to
sit at the table and make the
recommendations and coming with that
there is some accountability … that is where
we have to evolve in order to have fisheries
that are really sustainable”. “To take
fishermen’s knowledge seriously you have to
treat it like any other kind of knowledge. You
have to treat it with depth and seriousness.”
It is important to go beyond collecting the data
however; fishermen have to be able “to sit at the
table and make the recommendations and coming
with that there is some accountability … that is
where we have to evolve in order to have fisheries
that are really sustainable”.
The ‘science’ should provide information
about all the ecosystem components – not
just the fish stocks. This is in line with
numerous international conventions and
policies that now take an ecosystem-based
approach to coastal and ocean resource
management.
General Discussion
How healthy are the stocks?
Community science is one way to collect
information – science integrated with local
knowledge. Since 1995, the sentinel
fishery program has trained fishermen to
collect data for science programs. Similar
19
It should also be noted that community
based science has to be supported by some
sort of infrastructure. You should possibly
“have representatives that are paid by the
state or the nation in sufficient numbers to
be able to constantly reinforce the activities
and guide the collection of information by
the local users and the local citizens. People
spend 20 or 30 years of their lives training to
be scientists - you cannot make a scientist
overnight.”
Scientists and community representatives
have different perspectives. How can we get
better dialogue between these two groups
at the local level? Community science would
be one way, such as in Eastport and Gilbert
Bay, and community watershed groups such
as in Indian Bay and Gander River. In these
cases, communities have been involved in
science by working directly with university
and government scientists. Another
approach is to look for those areas where
there are people already working with
community scientists and see how to expand
those efforts. There are many people who
are concerned about the various stocks.
What is the best way for those people to
come together and share information and
seek solutions? Should it be region by
region or bay by bay or should there be a
series of multi-stakeholder forums held in
different parts of the province.
There are examples in the province where
there is a system in place for incorporating
science and local knowledge. For example,
for the emerging sea cucumber fishery “it is
gridded out and there are catch rates
recorded, there is a scientific component, an
actual fisher contribution to the science
“Any fishery in the future has to be designed in a
way that people are given input, people are
provided information that allows us to do and say
with a reasonable amount of assurance that we
are going in the right direction, the wrong
direction, things are looking good, things are
looking bad, what is the state of the fishery.”
20
component, and the collecting of the data”.
If the data are collected in this way
successfully over a period of time, then it
might go forward into a commercial fishery
in the future.
There is a community stewardship initiative
in Indian Bay area. Surveyors monitor the
recreational catch of trout and salmon and
also enforce the limits. Could this also be
applied to the recreational fishery for
codfish? “People who are monitors are
always looking for additional funding for
trout and salmon management - why can’t
these people in turn manage the cod
recreational fishery when the locations that
most fish come back to have a harbour or
port authority”.
But to make sense of the data we need to
understand stock structure. We need to
know the carrying capacity of the base
stocks and we need to invest in some
system to get this type of information; for
example, as was done with the very small
cod population in Eastport.
On the opening of the cod fishery
With regard to the opening of the cod
fishery the scientific analysis was that if we
went to this scale, that is 5,000 metric tons
(and that is without the discarding and
poaching) then that could set us back; it
could stop recovery.
For this opening, it could be argued that
this is not an experiment since the data are
not being collected to allow us insight into
the stock status. Without this information we
won’t know how we are doing. It should
have been set up where they would say “if
we are going to open it up, how do we open
it up and how do we collect the information
that is necessary to determine if it is a good
thing or a bad thing?” In future, before the
opening it would be useful to have a plan on
how to collect useful information that we
can go forward with.
How can we have a sustainable fishery?
A lot of doubt exists with respect to whether
ITQs will lead to a sustainable fishery; they
could be viewed as being part of an agenda
to “serve the downsizing of communities,
and the ‘easy to manage’ type of
approach”. How can ITQs be responsible
to the community?
It is important that every piece of new
legislation that may affect the fishery is
discussed in advance with community
leaders. “Any fishery in the future has to
be designed in a way that people are
given input, people are provided
information that allows us to do and say
with a reasonable amount of assurance
that we are going in the right direction,
the wrong direction, things are looking
good, things are looking bad, what is the
state of the fishery.”
Government regulations need to promote
competition and protect the small
producer. “History has shown that the
primary producer in this province has in a
lot of cases lost revenue because of
government regulations that don’t
promote competition”. The government
is currently addressing this with their new
seal policy. “There should be no reason
why there are not at least three or maybe
more processors in Newfoundland and
Labrador qualified to bring the seals to
the tanned stage, thereby increasing
employment opportunities in rural
Newfoundland and Labrador. There
should be sufficient competition in the
industry to ensure that competition drives
the best possible market price for the
harvest”.
It is important here to distinguish between
a sustainable fishery and a sustainable
fishing community. “My concern is that
with increased fisheries, they don’t fish on
communities anymore, they fish from
communities”. When the inshore
fishermen of the community fish outside
of the community and all the fish landed
in the harbour are processed elsewhere
that contributes nothing to the
community. “… the crux of the problem is
we have, whether we like to think of it or
not, the corporate model at work here.”
DIALOGUE CIRCLE
Is Aquaculture an Option?
How can we proceed with aquaculture and still protect
the wild stocks?
What species?
Where?
Is it economically viable and how should start-up be
financed?
Who will take the lead and assume the risk?
Are there real economically viable success stories that we
can point to in NL?
Cyr Couturier, President and Interim
Director, Newfoundland Aquaculture
Industry Association, St. John’s, NL
How can we proceed with aquaculture and
still protect the wild stocks?
There is evidence that salmon and mussel
aquaculture and wild stocks can co-exist; for
example, in Area 11 in Newfoundland and
Labrador aquaculture has been in place for
the last decade and fish landings in the area
are at a record high. In a study in partnership
with Memorial University examining areas of
salmon and mussel aquaculture where there
are lobster fisheries, the results show there is
no change or even an increase in lobster
landings, and indications of reduced
‘poaching’ of lobster and other species.
Where?
Impacts have been minimal when good
husbandry is practiced and there is adequate
site selection in consultation with
communities and fishermen. There are no
obvious effects on habitat loss over the short
or long term although there may be small
displacement of fishing grounds in some
areas. “… Newfoundland shellfish farms and
finfish farms seem to prevent habitat loss,
according to the fishermen, by preventing
draggers from taking over juvenile lobster
habitat, and also by reducing poaching
because of the presence of the farms.”
21
Impacts have been minimal when good husbandry
is practiced and there is adequate site selection in
consultation with communities and fishermen.
What species should we farm?
The most appropriate species are the
endemic native species: mussels, salmon,
steelhead and cod. Salmonid culture occurs
on the south coast of the island. Cod is also
being farmed.
Is it economically viable?
The value of the industry in Newfoundland
and Labrador is currently around $34 million
at the farm gate. This industry has a great
potential for employment. For example, in
Chile the aquaculture industry started about
15 years ago and it is now a $1.5 billion
industry employing about 76,000 people,
and entire communities depend on the
industry. This has also been the case in
Ireland and Norway. One of the potential
problems for Newfoundland and Labrador
however is a shortage of labour in the
coastal communities. There are not enough
young people and this may impede
expansion of the industry. A lot of economic
multipliers are associated with the
aquaculture industry including infrastructure
support and employment - “it is incremental
to but not in lieu of the fishery, and in many
of these communities it helps them be more
self-reliant”.
Who should take the lead?
It should be a partnership to begin with.
Brian Meaney, Assistant Deputy Minister,
Government of NL Department of
Aquaculture and Fisheries, St. John’s, NL
Where?
Newfoundland has a long coastline with
many areas that are suitable for aquaculture
development, including some isolated bays
and excellent water quality. Fishing has
been going on for 500 years, and so
“earning a living by growing fish in the water
is a natural extension”.
Is it economically viable?
The aquaculture industry produces seafood
and there is a worldwide demand for this
product. “Predictions provided by the
United Nations FAO indicate that
somewhere around 2030, we are going to
be at a tipping point where 50% of all the
production of seafood that goes to the
world market place will be coming from
aquaculture - somewhere around 180-200
million metric tons.” Newfoundland wants
to capture some of this market.
The infrastructure is already available
throughout the province including networks
of roads, wharfs, and fish processing
facilities in addition to transportation
infrastructure. This will enable the industry
to gear up and move rapidly in new areas
for development.
The workforce is primarily younger people
and they have been trained through
programs such as those offered at the
Marine Institute in St. John’s. Many young
people are back working in their
communities.
There are also spin-off industries associated
with the aquaculture industry; for example,
for one company in Bishop Falls 30% of their
production is geared to provide container
and packing materials for the Bay d’Espoir
salmon farming industry, which operates
year round.
New marketing strategies are being
developed to maximize the value of the
product; for example, labeling techniques
that inform the consumer of the ‘freshness’
22
of the product. There is also an initiative
underway, Brand Canada, which labels a
product as to its source and quality in
addition to factors related to
environmental sustainability and animal
husbandry, and provisions for worker
health and safety.
The role that NL government plays
“Our department’s role is to provide a
licensing and support system that looks at
each application and measures and
balances the needs of all the people
involved in the industry in terms of how
we can best utilize this area and manage it
for the long-term community
sustainability.” This also includes
synchronizing aquaculture activities with
other marine resource users such as the
traditional fishery, tourism, marine
transportation and recreational users.
Jill Bennett, Executive Director, Kittiwake
Economic Development Corporation,
Gander, NL
What species?
The species that have been identified for
Zone 14 are cod, mussels, clams, salmon
and steelhead trout. To date salmon and
steelhead aquaculture has not prospered
in this area due to the cold water and
potential ice damage. Cod and blue
mussels show the greatest potential.
There are currently mussel licences in the
Reach Run, New World Islands area and
applications underway for other areas
including Glovertown-St. Brendan’s and
Bridgeport (mussels) and Newton,
Bonavista Bay (clams). Two cod grow-out
licences have been issued for the Salvage
area.
Is this an economic opportunity?
The KEDC sees potential in codfish
aquaculture but is waiting for a source of
juvenile cod to be identified. Together
with the Fisheries Union they held an
educational workshop in 2000 to train
farmers in cod aquaculture. “KEDC will
support opportunities in aquaculture for
potential aquaculturists in our zone and …
would like to work with people interested
in opening up businesses in aquaculture in
this region.”
There are some factors which could impede
success for this zone including finding a
source of juvenile cod, low market prices for
mussels, cold water temperatures and ice,
and strained relationship between cottage
owners, fishery industry workers and
aquaculturists.
Geoff Perry, Regional Aquaculture
Coordinator, Planning and Coordination
Division, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, St.
John’s, NL
Can we proceed with aquaculture and still
protect the wild stocks?
The existing scientific literature describing
environmental impacts of aquaculture and
the interactions between wild and farmed or
hatchery origin fish generally concludes that:
farmed fish are different from wild fish due to
genetic properties and selection processes
as well as being reared in different
environments; interactions between farmed
and wild fish can have negative
consequences for both groups of fish, and
therefore it is important to reduce or
minimize the interactions, and, there are
reasonable ways to do this. In
Newfoundland, in terms of salmonid
aquaculture there is little evidence of
interactions between wild and farmed fish in
freshwater. For rainbow trout, “we have seen
lots of trout in the lower sections of the river
but they never seem to migrate the full
length of the stream, or the watershed, and
they certainly never seem to go to the
spawning and juvenile rearing areas”.
“We have the management systems and the
government systems in place in this province
to enable both to co-exist. We don’t have
aquaculture at the expense of the fishery or
Aquaculture will be responsible for almost all
future increases in the global seafood supply,
“since most of the world’s commercial fisheries are
with fully exploited, over-exploited, or collapsed
and at some point of recovery.”
23
have the commercial fishery at the expense
of aquaculture.”
Where?
Site selection is key. Avoiding productive fish
habitat is imperative in locating new sites.
“We are not putting farms on top of eelgrass
beds, current spawning areas, or commercial
fishing grounds.”
“Right now aquaculture has very little impact
on the southern coast of Newfoundland and
that in part reflects the scale of the industry – it
is very small. But if you go to other places in
the world where aquaculture is at a much larger
scale such as Norway, Chile, and New
Brunswick, they are facing issues from the
environmental side.”
Is it economically viable?
Aquaculture will be responsible for almost all
future increases in the global seafood
supply, “since most of the world’s
commercial fisheries are fully exploited,
over-exploited, or collapsed and at some
point of recovery.” Given that these are food
products in the marketplace that are
consistent in terms of supply and quality, it
makes sense to have aquaculture in this
province.
A benefit for Newfoundland is that there are
management systems in place for both
commercial and aquaculture industries. “The
challenge for aquaculture development is to
find the way where fishers and farmers can
co-exist and stand side by side on the coast
and both make a reasonable living from the
ocean.”
One of the keys to success is the shared
vision of the government of NL and DFO –
“that we want to see it succeed in coastal
Newfoundland”.
24
Ian Fleming, Director, Ocean Sciences
Centre, Memorial University of
Newfoundland, St. John’s, NL
Aquaculture and protection of wild stocks
In terms of the social benefits to the
communities it is important to remember
that social sustainability is based on
economic sustainability and this relies on
environmental sustainability.
There are some environmental challenges
associated with aquaculture including: the
fish stocks used for fish meal, escapes,
diseases that can potentially impact other
organisms in the ecosystem, and waste and
pollution that come from the sites. It is
critical to consider these challenges when
considering ‘scaling up’ the industry. “Right
now aquaculture has very little impact on
the southern coast of Newfoundland and
that in part reflects the scale of the industry
– it is very small. But if you go to other
places in the world where aquaculture is at a
much larger scale such as Norway, Chile,
and New Brunswick, they are facing issues
from the environmental side.”
The questions are: How do you scale up?
What density of farms are you going to
have in a given area? and, Where are those
farms going to be located?
The aquaculture industry working in
partnership with various governments has
addressed these challenges, globally. For
example, one of the changes (and
challenges) that has arisen over the years is
related to cage technology. The size of the
cage systems has increased (originally they
were 30 m in diameter and today they are
up to about 120 m). One of the larger cages
in Norway, for example, can hold up to 5,000
metric tons of fish. Breakage of such a cage
would have serious environmental
consequences.
This is very important to consider in the
choice of sites for fish farms. The type of
feed used in finfish farms is also a challenge.
Much work has been going on to improve
feed by reducing the amount of other fish
that must be used to feed the fish in the
farms in order to have optimal growth rates.
A number of substitutes have been tested
and the industry is moving ahead in terms
of solving this problem.
- it won’t. Aquaculture species are high
priced species for the middle and upper
class markets, not for the poor of the world.”
What species?
The question is “What species do we want
here – rainbow trout, salmon, cod? What
potential impacts can we expect from
those fish if they escape from cages? …
Should we demand that they be sterile?”
Species selection is a key issue. It makes
sense to farm mussels and clams here and
herbivorous species like tilapia and catfish.
Salmon, and potentially cod, use a lot of
feed. The questions are: “What is the cost in
terms of destroying the environment in
places where you get this feed, such as Peru
… and, How do you justify moving forward
with cod as a predatory species when you
know salmon are already causing some
major problems?”
Where?
In deciding on sites we have to take into
account the potential impacts or conflicts
that may arise with other resource users,
and personal, cultural and other values
that we see with use of ocean resources.
Are we going to have a coastal zoning
plan? “Are we going to have nature
reserves, are we going to have industrial
reserves where we allow certain industrial
practices.”
Who should take the risk?
There are strict codes of practice for the
aquaculture industry and Newfoundland
and Labrador have some of the better
codes of practice, globally. These codes
are key but they also have to involve buyin … “they are not enforced codes of
practice, they are bought into by the
farmers. The industry itself is only
successful when the farmers work
together. One bad bandit in the group
brings down the quality of that product,
and the public perception too. There is a
lot of incentive for them to work
together.”
General Discussion on impacts of
aquaculture on marine ecosystems and
wild stocks
Feed
In terms of feed, it should be noted that in
weight it takes about three wild fish to
provide nutrition for one farmed fish to
grow to maturity. “You are actually taking
three times the amount of weight from the
sea fishery to support the aquaculture
industry with feed and that leads to other
questions. At one time they thought
aquaculture would help to feed the world
A respondent noted that for about 85% of
the world’s aquaculture production, fish is
not a requirement for feed; for example, the
shellfish industry relies mainly on seaweed.
“Yes we have luxury items in North America
and in Europe, accounting for about 12-15%
of the global population, however, the other
85% of the world does rely heavily on fish. It
is the single largest source of animal protein
consumed on an annual basis by human
beings in Africa, sub-Saharan Africa, and
Asia and a lot of that fish will have to come
from farmed sources because there just isn’t
that much left in the ocean to extract.”
It was noted also that fish meal not only
exists as feed for the finfish farms, but, in
fact, 60% of all fishmeal produced globally
goes to the agriculture industry (poultry and
hogs).
Pollution
In Scotland there have been serious
problems with chemicals used for the salmon
farming industry that kill lobster larvae in
some of the lochs, and this has not been
“adequately addressed by the EPA – it
seems to have a ‘hands off’ attitude towards
the industry”.
Disease and monocultures
The example of the near shrimp in Southeast
Asia was described where they overstocked
and whitespot disease moved in with
ensuing losses to banks, investors and
communities. “Governments there have
learned some lessons and throughout
Southeast Asia - now they are discouraging
25
monoculture of the near shrimp, and they
are asking the industry to, as far as possible,
rotate the crop and ‘if you grow shrimp one
year, grow crab the next year and tilapia the
next’ …”
How these concerns are being addressed in
NL
One of the advantages in this province is
that we have learned by the mistakes of
others and are aware of these issues. “For
example, we have a policy in this province in
that we will only issue licenses in triplicate
because we want mandatory fallowing of
sites, we want mandatory separation of year
classes and we want maximum distance
between farms to address the issues of
pollution, disease transfer, and the ability for
the environment to assimilate and take care
of the effluent that comes from salmon
farms.”
A code of containment and a code of
practice are mandatory for licensing and can
be enforced through the licensing process.
Equipment malfunction was found to be the
main cause of escapes and government has
worked with industry to address this. “... on a
regular basis what is causing escapes
worldwide had to do with the anchoring
systems, the nets, or the attachment systems
that are in the cages. We cooperated and
developed with industry the code of
containment and the code of practice and
on a regular basis we inspect every net that
is being used in the province. This has also
benefited the growers; for example, … we
were finding that for the upper third of the
net which gets hit with UV light
there is degradation of the mesh
… you can cut that part off and
sew on a new part and continue
to use the net that has the bottom
part with the same tensile
strength as the day it was placed
in the ocean.” This has
dramatically reduced the numbers
of escapes.
They have also managed the issue
of pollution and disease
transference with site separation
strategies.
26
In a global analysis of farming operations by
the WWF and Atlantic Salmon Federation,
Newfoundland was rated 10 out of 10 for
areas of containment and holding systems in
the salmon farming industry. “We were
invited as a province to go to the North
Atlantic Salmon Conservation Organization’s
presentation to the EU and present our
code of containment as the basis on which
they should adopt international codes. It
was adopted as written with minor
amendments for various geographical areas
as the process that should be used in the
salmon farming industry to ensure
prevention of escapes.”
A respondent noted that with scaling up
there are a lot of potential environmental
questions that come into play and the
province must plan for this – coastal zone
planning should be put in place and
government should be addressing questions
such as: What are the areas that will present
the least risk to critical habitat? What
densities do you want the farms to have?
Another respondent suggested that an
eelgrass map of NL would be helpful in
terms of siting farms so as to avoid this
critical habitat for wild species.
Small scale aquaculture – an alternative
way to proceed
Large scale aquaculture may not be the way
to go in this province. “What I recommend
is we use low cost infrastructure that has low
environmental impact using native species
grown from local stocks, and seed from local
stocks whether it is mussels, cod, or
scallops. You can use co-op marketing on
a regional scale – you don’t have to
market the product globally. In this way
fishermen can supplement their income
from small scale aquaculture.”
Is it economically viable?
An example was given of a community in
Newfoundland where an aquaculture site
was developed and several youth from the
community went to St. John’s for training
and got qualified to work on the site.
However, they were not given year round
full-time employment. “You cannot bring
the youth back and give them 20 weeks of
work only – if you are going to have jobs
for five people have to have five
sustainable jobs, not 25 unsustainable
jobs – it impacts your feasibility and your
product because it is not sustainable.”
A participant provided an example of a
community in which he formerly lived
where the shrimp aquaculture industry
destroyed the lives of the people of the
community. “It took away communities
and their natural resources and what they
were otherwise dependent on and
brought people from other parts of the
country to work in the industry so it did
not provide jobs. And then when the
industry collapsed from the whitespot
disease it left devastated communities
everywhere.”
The Bay d’Espoir community was cited as
an example of the aquaculture industry
providing an opportunity for the
community. “People have long-term
sustainable jobs, they are staying in the
community or returning, and these are
well-educated people. This is a real
success story on how an industry can help
a community.”
Panelists concluded that there is much
misinformation about the aquaculture
industry and it is critical to communicate
objectively on the issues raised in this
discussion.
ROASTED MINKE WHALE WITH CRANBERRIES:
CHALLENGES TO ENVIRONMENTALISM IN
CONSERVING DIVERSITY OF LIFE AND THE
DIVERSITY OF HUMAN CULTURES
Speaker:Terry Glavin, Fisheries Writer/
Researcher and Marine Conservation
Advisor, Sierra Club of Canada, BC Chapter,
Victoria, BC
Introduction: Anne Troake, Filmmaker,
Twillingate, NL
Anne Troake introduced Terry Glavin and
read a passage from Waiting for the
McCaws.
“Humanity’s diversity is similarly withering.
Though the world population has
surpassed six billion, it is as though some
savage ethnic cleansing is underway. The
world is losing an entire language every
two weeks. Fully half of the world’s 5000
languages are expected to be gone, with
all their songs and sagas, by the middle of
this century. We are losing religious and
intellectual traditions, entire bodies of
literature, taxonomies, pharmacopias, and
all those ways of seeing, knowing, and
being that have made humanity so
resilient and successful a species for so
long. This is not what we had come to
expect from the promise of the
Enlightenment. We are not gaining
knowledge with every human generation
– we are losing it.” (Glavin 2006)
“The title of my talk … relates to the
Lofoten Islands in Norway (this area has
come up more than once for discussion at
this workshop). I spent some time there with
an old Norse relic community of whalers and
developed a real affection for minke whale
meat - it is a very sustainable whale hunt and
they too have persisted in their traditions
against all odds, as have people in this
community.”
What are the challenges for coastal
communities?
Mr. Glavin described the threats to coastal
communities in his home province, British
Columbia. Based on his experiences with his
Glavin, Terry. 2006. Waiting for the Macaws: And Other Stories from the Age of Extinctions. Toronto: Viking Canada.
27
home on the Gulf Islands he commented
that “working landscapes in Canada are
turning into viewscapes. Living communities
are being turned into scenery.”
He noted that BC coastal communities are
relatively young in a Newfoundland context
“we haven’t had European cultures in British
Columbia for 500 years.” In recent times
there has been the kind of rapid
technological and industrial change that
David Thomson referred to and in his
opinion this has been one of the main
factors contributing to the “hemorrhaging of
coastal communities in British Columbia”.
Fisheries on the west coast
Fishing was once a major foundation of the
British Columbia economy. The recent
trends however have been stock declines
and regional extirpation of stocks. The rise
of salmon aquaculture and availability of
cheap farmed salmon has contributed to the
recent “depression era” prices for wild chum
and pink salmon. Roughly 200,000 metric
tons of marine protein is removed annually
from Canada’s Pacific Ocean; almost two
thirds of the catch by volume of species and
by value is attributable to the groundfish
fisheries and 70% of that catch is attributable
to 70 or 80 vessels. “They bring up about
100 species of fish; more than half of those
species are not protected by any catch limits
whatsoever.” … “The lion’s share of DFO’s
budget on the west coast goes to salmon
and herring and other sorts of glamorous
species - all these groundfish species tend
to get ignored.”
The $300 million budget of the DFO for the
Pacific region is less than what the
Americans spend on salmon alone in the
Columbia River. There are about 10,000
spawner populations of Pacific salmon
(several hundreds have already been lost to
extinction). These stocks are very poorly
understood … “we actually had better stock
status information for most stocks a half a
century ago than we do now. Spawning
enumeration was far more sophisticated in
the 1950s than it is today.” The causes of
the declines in the stocks are well-known:
over-fishing, habitat loss, poor logging
practices and urban development. “But the
28
industry itself has really withered beyond
what you might imagine from landings data.
... it is the decline of the coastal cannery
culture, going to the centralized canning
and cold storage capacity and rapid
technological advances, transportation of
raw fish, and railroads. The shift of world
markets away from canned products to fresh
and frozen products has concentrated
processing, such as it is, in the urban centres
of Vancouver and to some extent Prince
Rupert.” The fleet has shrunk from more
than 7,000 vessels to less than 2,000 vessels
and most of those do not fish for more than
a few days per year.
In BC there is another problem not seen in
Newfoundland and that is the long-standing
conflict over allocation between the coastal
commercial fishery and the tribal fishery.
“This has been particularly tragic in the
extent to which it has prevented significant
progress on the matter of maintaining the
viability and the vitality of coastal
communities, both aboriginal and nonaboriginal”.
Climate change effects in BC
Another potential threat for coastal
communities in BC is climate change. We
are seeing an increase in water temperatures
in the river systems that are “terrifying” and
in the small rivers this may actually be lethal
to salmon. Ocean temperatures have
increased significantly too. “Hawaiian
moonfish are being caught as far north at
Kitkatla. This is a time of great uncertainty”.
What enables action?
On environmentalism
In the book “I consider the terrible failings
of the environmental movement which I
will argue is directly related to the
collapse of fisheries and the climate and
communities associated with them around
the world - this preposterous and
debilitating idea that there is some kind of
impermeable barrier between nature and
culture, between the wild and the tamed,
and this peculiar sort of article of faith that
has emerged in the last 30 years or so that
it is impossible that human beings might
live sustainably on the wild things of the
world unless the people are not only
aboriginal but also living out some kind of
white North American fantasy about what
being aboriginal is about. Nowhere is that
story more graphically told than in the
story of the so-called evolution of the
‘save the whales’ movement.” Shane
Mahoney “hit it on the head when he
talked about if we are to be serious about
what we are to believe in as
conservationists and environmentalists,
then we have to be serious about coming
to the aid of those communities that are
struggling to live sustainably upon the
renewable resources of the ecosystems
within which they live”.
“We have to get serious about this
business of sustainability, and this requires
us to do a couple of things”. We have to
turn away from the “misanthropic view of
humanity” that has emerged over the last
quarter of a century, and away from the
simplistic “four legs good two legs bad”
approach to the environmental problems
we are facing. It is “the way we think
about the human species, about ourselves
as human beings, that is what matters
here”. And … “we also have to remember
that we are Copernicus, and we are
Galileo, and if we are not the place where
solutions might be developed then we
might as well just throw in the towel
mightily”.
Positive signs and changes
Working together in BC
There is a new process in BC that involves
all stakeholders, the aboriginals,
commercial sector, recreational sector and
NGOs, working together with the
Department of Fisheries and Oceans in all
harvesting decision-making activities in
salmon management. “What this means is
that we have to roll up our sleeves and get
down to the very difficult and unglamorous
work of co-authoring fishing plans and
making sensible and intelligent contributions
to the conversation …. This is where it really
counts”.
“... working landscapes in Canada are turning
into viewscapes. Living communities are being
turned into scenery.”
Fish stocks in recovery
For some species there have been
successes. “The pink salmon returns to the
Fraser River in the last seven years have been
far and away greater than anything we have
seen in the entire 20th century. We almost
fished herring in British Columbia to the
brink of extinction in the 1960s and 1970s.
Two years ago the herring returned and the
spawning biomass of herring on the south
coast of British Columbia was roughly equal
to the biomass of half a million buffalo.
Coho salmon were on the verge of extinction
throughout the coast only seven years ago
and now they are practically coming up the
kitchen sink on the coast of British Columbia.
With respect to groundfish - within two years
we will be able to say that for every single
fish that appears on a supermarket shelf
anywhere in the world, ‘that came from
British Columbia’s groundfish fisheries, that
was the fisherman that caught that fish,
where the fish was caught, what that fish was
caught with, and this is the species that it
was caught with in number and distribution
and so on’”. And, “for the first time in 130
years the industry leadership, the
commercial salmon advisory board, is having
useful and productive discussions with the
tribes on the matter of restoring the tribal
fisheries of the great river systems of British
Columbia”. It is important to remember the
victories that we have won.
“We have to somehow sort out a way to fall
in love with humanity again and to
remember that we are not just a plague on
the world.”
29
HOW DO YOU DIVERSIFY TO ENABLE A SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITY?
CENTREVILLE AS A CASE STUDY
Shane Noble, New Wood Manufacturers Inc., Centreville, NL
Centreville is a relocated community - families moved to this centre in
the 1960s from places like Fair Island and Silver Fox Island. Like the rest
of rural Newfoundland, the population of Centreville is declining – it
has dropped from 1,400 to 1,100 in the last ten years. There is no major
industry to create high paying jobs, but there is a lot of small industry.
This community has a history of good leadership. “We have one of the
few councils that people are actually looking to get on - eleven people
ran for our municipal council this year, which is virtually unheard of in
rural Newfoundland. These people are mostly manufacturing or small
business owners and they are also involved in a multitude of clubs and
corporations”.
Centreville has historically been a town of great entrepreneurial spirit,
the industries including blueberry farms (an opportunity that arose
when logging was lost due to a large forest fire), frozen foods plants, a
small specialized fisheries operation, fiberglass boat building
companies and a company that builds wooden long liners and wharfs,
and another company that builds boat trailers.
New Wood Manufacturers is the Noble family business. It has evolved
from being originally a Labrador fishing and transfer company to the
merchant side including hardware stores and heavy equipment, to the
current company which specializes in “producing quality hardwood
flooring, moldings, spindles treads, and all secondary processed wood
products in Newfoundland”. Much of the material for the hardwood
products is imported – from Maine, New Hampshire, Quebec and as
far away as Brazil and Chile. The business started off in 1989 with 5,000
sq ft and it is now at 25,000 sq. ft. It employs, “19 people, 6 of those are
52 weeks a year people and the other 14 work from 45 to 48 weeks a
year. It is a year-long operation”.
The Challenges
“In order to sustain our business we have to constantly think up new
ideas; for example, we had a problem with wood waste, so we
implemented a process of burning our sawdust waste to heat the
building, cutting down on our fossil fuel dependency. We also ship our
sawdust to the seal industry for tanning. These strategies have
eliminated our waste. Acting on these types of opportunities is vital to
our success, and so is government support. ACOA has been a large
benefit to us.”
Centreville is very much a “family business area … we all work with
each other.” New industries are coming into Centreville, such as the
recent Versatile Stone, a Quebec company that utilizes stone from
Newfoundland and supplies it to all of Atlantic Canada.
In terms of community and place, people like to come to visit us and
stay. “Young people
are slowly coming back – we have
hired five
FEBRUARY
2005
JUNE
2005
people in the last two years from Ontario who are under 35 years.”
30
WHAT OTHER OPTIONS EXIST?
DIALOGUE CIRCLE
What Other Options Exist?
What are other feasible industries for
Newfoundland and Labrador?
What are the enablers of new industry
start-ups?
Do these other options conflict with or
complement the fishery and aquaculture
sectors?
What are the challenges and how do we
overcome them?
How will we ensure long-term
sustainability?
Todd Wight, The Newfoundland and
Labrador Outfitter’s Association, Deer
Lake, NL
For about 50 years, the Newfoundland and
Labrador Outfitter’s Association has been
representing the outfitting industry which is
comprised of big-game hunting operations
and recreational sport fishing businesses
both on the island of Newfoundland and in
Labrador. The industry is comprised
predominantly of hunting in Newfoundland
and fishing in Labrador, with a mix of both in
each location. The output of the industry is
$41 million annually which comprises about
12% of the overall tourism revenues in the
province. There are almost 2,000 employees
working with outfitting operations. Generally
the outfitting operations run a three-season
operation with spring bear hunts, summer
fishing and fall hunting seasons and there is
some overlap with those as well.
The industry operates in rural areas – the
businesses are in fairly remote locations and
the employees are mostly families who live
and reside in these areas and “the skill sets
that they have come from the fact that they
have grown up and lived and learned in rural
Newfoundland and Labrador”.
The challenges
This industry is dependent on a
sustainable resource. Effective land-use
management policies are key. They spend
much time dealing with conflicting issues
and responding to environmental
assessments; for example, wind farms may
be planned for traditional hunting areas or
a forest harvesting plant may be planned
for caribou calving grounds. Competing
land use issues have to be managed
effectively and “we need all the user
groups at the table while the policies are
being developed”.
One challenge now is finding qualified
and knowledgeable hunting and fishing
guides. In the past many fishing guides
were fishermen. It is also challenging to
keep the operators and encourage new
investors in the business.
This industry has a very good working
relationship with the government. But it
should be noted that this is the only
province in Canada that does not have
control over its inland waters.
We need to view our resources and
industries from the perspective of
ecological economics and develop biggame and fish management policies that
are sustainable, based on sound science,
economically viable, and environmentally
conservative.
Junaita Keel-Ryan, Director, Tourism
Product Development, NL Department of
Tourism, Culure and Recreation, St.
John’s, NL
We need to view our resources and industries
from the perspective of ecological economics
and develop big-game and fish management
policies that are sustainable, based on sound
science, economically viable, and
environmentally conservative.
have to be the best there is in order to
attract the market to you”.
First, there is a need for travel generators
and clusters. Examples of travel generators
in NL include: L’Anse aux Meadows, Gros
Morne, Witless Bay Islands, and Cape St.
Mary’s. Examples of clusters of travel
generators include: Twillingate and the
Bonavista peninsula, including Trinity,
Bonavista and King’s Cove. “Generally
people will travel long distances to buy and
to experience. In the tourism business we are
not just selling concrete items, but we are
also selling experiences and memories. If we
want to be creative in building the tourism in
this province then we have to create these
memories and sometimes they have to be
created without the tourists knowing they are
being created”.
There is also need for high quality services
including experiences, accommodations,
food services and interpretation. Generally
this industry needs to improve the
professionalism of the staff and the food
services outside major centres. From a
tourism perspective, sustainability is also
becoming more and more of an issue.
“To succeed in the tourism business, you
need a product that is available and
accessible, generally a good strong
product, and a significant market wanting
to buy the product. In the tourism
business the major products are travel
generators. They are unique features or
clusters of products that can come
together in one place or one region and
generally are the very best in their class.
When you are on an island you are fairly
far away from the market place so you
31
The challenges for this industry include
addressing questions such as: What is the
product? How much is it costing to provide
the product? Are there skill-sets available to
deliver the product based on the market
requirements? Is it easily accessible? What is
the market potential for the product that you
have got? How can you reach that market?
Can you really deliver on the promises that
are being made?
The industry also needs to overcome
seasonality, limited infrastructure and
operations funding (it is difficult to find ‘core’
funding for operations), and they need to
find a consistent supply of both the natural
resource and the professional resource.
Finding the market is an ongoing challenge
and there is a continuing problem for human
resources in rural areas, and in some cases,
urban areas. The population is aging and
youth are not staying in the communities.
The enablers for a healthy tourism industry
include: a strong product and service base,
access, a long or multi-season product, and
sustainable products.
Finding the market is an ongoing challenge and
there is a continuing problem for human
resources in rural areas, and in some cases,
urban areas. The population is aging and youth
are not staying in the communities.
Merv Wiseman, President, NL Federation of
Agriculture; President, NL Fur Breeders’
Association and Director, NL Livestock
Council, North Harbour, NL
A strong promoter of agriculture in the
province, Mr. Wiseman, focused on its future
potential for the provincial economy.
Farming is worth about $8.5M of the GDP
for Canada. In NL farming has traditionally
been subsistence but prior to
Confederation, it represented a greater part
of the economy than it does today. For
example, in the 1920s-1930s NL produced as
much as 100,000 breeding ewes, and was a
32
$65-70 million dollar industry. Today we only
produce about 6,000 breeding ewes. We
have capacity in this sector and we should
exploit it. For example, the non-traditional
agriculture sector of nursery and
landscaping added $40 million to the
provincial economy. Fur farming has more
potential. It is worth $60 million and we
could be doing more by converting fish
plants into kitchens for fur farming. There is
also an opportunity with the vegetable
industry. Today we are producing only 10%
of the provincial consumption and there is
the potential to increase production with
warming climates. We need the right
infrastructure and a more enabling
regulatory framework. Farming, like the
fishery, is facing a crisis of labour supply.
There are not enough young people coming
into or staying in the sector. A major
problem is attracting young people to the
rural communities.
Greg McLeod, Professor Emeritus,
University College of Cape Breton
Erosion of small communities
In open economic systems such as Canada
there are large parts of the country that are
excluded from most of the benefits. In
Atlantic Canada the big communities of
Moncton, Halifax and St. John’s are getting
bigger and outside these communities
everything is dying. “I believe we have to
experiment with new mechanisms and new
ways of doing things to ensure that there is
diversification in small communities.”
Solution –find new structures in which to
work
Assuming that we cannot stop these large
trends, are there things that we can do to
limit and control the trends? A key strategy
must be the development of counterweight
economic systems which are locally based
and locally controlled. This role should be
carried out by the private sector. Within the
private sector community business groups
will normally take the lead, especially in
economically distressed areas. However,
success also depends upon government
policy. In fact, all private business is affected
by public policy. In Cape Breton, they are
experimenting with heritage tourism
based on culture and history. It is not
capital intensive and they are selling nontangible goods. Another initiative is
negotiating with Clearwater to take over
the fish plant. They are looking at using
the plant to produce animal foods and
they are also considering alternate species
such as eels.
For any ideas to move forward you need
three kinds of infrastructure – investment,
people and knowledge/research. To be
successful, community business must find
ways of keeping bright young people in
the area and ways of entrapping local
capital. Furthermore, it must find ways of
bringing bright young people “back
home” and encouraging expatriates to
invest “back home”. Our response to the
lack of business knowledge could be the
transformation of universities to the role
of action research.
Action research means that the university
personnel become participants in
developing new kinds of local economic
institutions. Examples in Cape Breton are
New Dawn and the BCA Finance Group
which were organized by UCCB professors
who serve on the boards of local ventures.
Obstacles
Institution capacity for application of
research
We do not have a framework in place for
universities and government to work
together on outreach. We do have a good
connection with applied research for
agriculture but the pure research and
applied research are not well connected.
“We need to take that research off the shelf
in a practical kind of way and commercialize
it - unless we address some of that then we
are in trouble.”
Urban society is disconnected from rural
society. Urban society needs to be educated
about what it means to depend on rural
Newfoundland. Urban society wants their
children to, “be a doctor, lawyer, or teacher
… for goodness sakes don’t go fishing,
don’t go farming’. … so we have a big
attitude problem and I think it is up to our
institutions to do something about it”.
For any ideas to move forward you need
three kinds of infrastructure – investment,
people and knowledge/research. To be
successful, community business must find
ways of keeping bright young people in the
area and ways of entrapping local capital.
Furthermore, it must find ways of bringing
bright young people “back home” and
encouraging expatriates to invest “back
home”.
33
General Discussion on What Other Options
Exist
A strategy for getting youth to return to
the communities
With respect to attracting young people
back to the communities, they will come if
you show them that the quality of life and
cost of living is much better than they would
have on the mainland. “You can live for a lot
less money and enjoy recreational property
and a lifestyle that you won’t get on the
mainland because you couldn’t afford it
there, no matter how much money you
made”.
One of the biggest obstacles for youth to
return to the province is finding a job that
pays enough to cover student loan
payments. “I could not afford to go back to
rural Newfoundland and work, not because I
didn’t want to but because I couldn’t afford
to pay my student loan payments. If you
want me and other young people to come
back, deal with that issue.”
What is meant by a sustainable community?
Does sustainable mean staying for 8, 12, 24,
or 52 weeks per year, or about sustaining a
job long enough to get EI? Research in the
tourism industry has shown that youth is
needed; generally people over 55 do not
want to work in this industry – it is hard work
and can involve heavy labour. How is it
possible to supply a quality product if there
are no young people available? For some
aspects of the tourism industry (eg kayaking
and skiing) well-educated and trained
people are needed but they are not willing
to work for only 8 – 12 weeks per year.
Innovation is key. Research shows that in the
tourism industry success is often tied to
those who are innovative; e.g., “in realizing
the raw resource that is there that they can
utilize and that there is a market that they
are willing to buy, whether it is kayaking or
cross-country skiing.”
To promote new industries the infrastructure
and regulations need to be in place. This is
why the sheep industry in Newfoundland, for
example, is no longer a viable option. The
34
markets now require that the product is
certified with the farm management system
and in this case there is no capacity in the
NL government to do this. “We do not have
federal inspection slaughter houses, we
don’t have mandatory inspection of meat. …
By law we cannot export unless it is
federally inspected. … Even within the
province, within the voluntary inspection
meat detection system we cannot do it.”
When it comes to dealing with infrastructure
limitations, collaboration and partnership is
critical. Communities need to work together
to move across the divisions of the
infrastructure; for example, there is ACOA
Newfoundland, ACOA Cape Breton, ACOA
New Brunswick. “If you deal with one they
don’t want to deal with the other, if you deal
with ACOA the province might not be
happy, if you deal with the province ACOA
might not be happy”. In the tourism
industry if a lot of small groups are united
under one umbrella structure then they can
be more efficient; for example, “they could
have the technical ability to make
arrangements for someone who comes
directly from Toronto to Gander; that is an
opportunity to organize a group in Toronto
to land in Gander and be picked up by a
small bus and taken to Change Islands and
other sights, a few days here and a few days
there.”
Universities have an important role to play in
terms of applied research; for example, the
outfitters have begun a program with
Memorial to determine yields and that may
influence policy on how the resources are
used and how they are allocated for
recreation and commercial use. “Many times
when we try to affect decisions to make our
businesses in our rural communities a little
more sustainable we are asked to quantify
what we do, ‘show us how if we give you
more of this resource’, or ‘if we allocate a
larger portion to your business, show us how
that is going to help you be more
sustainable’.”
COSTA RICA AS A LEADER IN MARINE
CONSERVATION
Introduction: Arlo Hemphill, Director,
Global Marine Strategies, Conservation
International, Washington, DC
Costa Rica has long been recognized as a
global leader in biodiversity conservation.
In the early 1970s, Costa Rica established
a system of terrestrial national parks that
would become a model for national park
systems in the developing world and
make way for an economy based largely
on an emerging market, eco-tourism.
Even today, this park system is the
mainstay of Costa Rica’s distinction as the
country in the world with the greatest
percentage of land under protection. And
Costa Rica continues to enjoy a thriving,
nature-based economy.
In the past few decades, the world has
witnessed alarming trends in the decline
of ocean health. Extensive coastal
wetlands are being displaced for
aquaculture and expanding urban areas;
agricultural run-off is resulting in
enormous ‘dead-zones’ in many parts of
the world ocean; 90% of all large,
predatory fishes have been wiped out
globally within a 50 year time frame; 76%
of all fisheries world-wide are either fully
exploited or over-exploited; a third of
these fisheries have already collapsed,
and scientists predict the collapse of all
major fisheries by the mid-21st century.
Immediate action is needed to protect
vulnerable marine habitats and once
again, Costa Rica is emerging as a global
leader, surpassing even developed
nations in their efforts to protect the
marine environment.
Snuggled between two oceans and with
sovereignty over Cocos Island in the
remote Eastern Tropical Pacific, Costa Rica
is blessed with a sea area over ten times
the size of its land area. From colorful
coral reefs in the Caribbean to highly
productive open ocean waters in the
Pacific, the small Central American
country is rich in a diversity and
abundance of marine life. More importantly,
they are taking concrete steps to protect this
natural resource.
Compared to nearly 15% of the world’s land
surface that is now protected under some
form of conservation management regime,
less than 1% of the world’s ocean receives
similar treatment. On June 9, 2004, Costa
Rica made the bold decision to far surpass
the global average by putting 25% (or 143,
681 km2) of its Exclusive Economic Zone
(EEZ) under some form of protected status.
Earlier that year (April 2nd 2004), they also
facilitated the signing of the San Jose
Declaration by the governments of Costa
Rica, Colombia, Panama and Ecuador. The
declaration allows for multi-national
management and conservation in the Pacific
Coast EEZs of the four nations. Effectively a
marine mega-corridor in the Eastern Tropical
Pacific, conservation measures are focusing
on World Heritage Sites in the region -- the
Galápagos Archipelago (Ecuador), Cocos
Island (Costa Rica) – Coiba Island (Panamá)
and Malpelo Island (Colombia).
Costa Rica has paid particular attention to
the plight of the Pacific leatherback sea
turtle, a species whose populations have
declined by 95% in the past 20 years,
primarily as a result of long-line fishing
pressure. The last major nesting site of the
Pacific leatherback is at Baulas National Park
in Costa Rica. In February of 2004, the fully
protected marine area of this park was
expanded by a magnitude and a fishing-free
conservation corridor was created on the
migratory route of these animals between
Baulas Park on the mainland and Cocos
Island in the distant Pacific.
On the fisheries front, Costa Rica has
successfully, through executive decree,
eradicated illegal fishing from its Cocos
Island World Heritage site. On February 10,
2005, the country also passed a new fisheries
law requiring all shrimp trawlers to use Turtle
Excluder Devices (TEDs) as well as outlawing
the practice of shark finning. Finally, on the
international stage, Costa Rica was the first
nation to put forward a proposal for a
moratorium on high seas bottom trawling, a
35
practice that without question is the single
greatest threat to deepsea biodiversity on
the high seas. Known as the Costa Rican
moratorium proposal during the 2004 U.N.
General Assembly, the momentum for this
measure continued to grow through
November of 2006, when it failed to be
ratified by the U.N. General Assembly by
one vote – that of Iceland.
With a recognized history of conservation,
Costa Rica has learned to successfully
balance the conservation of biodiversity with
the development of their economy and a
commitment to the well-being of their small
communities. Antonio Arreaga-Valdes of
the Latin Export Group and Honorary Consul
General to the Costa Rican General
Consulate in Vancouver, British Columbia will
highlight an example of this balance from
the coffee agricultural zone of the country.
“People now are looking for experiences that
promote sustainability and where
communities themselves are taking control of
their future.”
RESOURCE CONSERVATION IN COSTA RICA
Antonio Arreaga-Valdes, Honorary Consul
General, Consulado General de Costa Rica,
Vancouver, BC
Antonio Arreaga, the Honorary Consul
General for Costa Rica based in Vancouver,
presented an overview of La Ruta del Café, a
concept developed at coffee production
based communities. This idea emerged in
these communities because of the
fluctuations in coffee prices for the
producers (most of the time low while the
prices for consumers remained high).
As a result many of these communities
decided to switch from coffee to “fast
crops”. But for decades the communities
had been producing coffee and they knew
how to make excellent coffee. In addition, in
thinking of their assets they realized that
their communities have beautiful
landscapes, excellent cuisine, and a culture
rich in traditions and artistic expression. All
36
the representatives met together –
municipality, school, farm owners and
private business – to try and come up with
an idea to enhance their sustainability. First,
they decided to form the Chamber of
Tourism. Their idea was to work together
with the community representatives and in
the initial stage have students complete an
inventory of the possible tourism attractions
and community assets in general using their
skills as coffee producers as the foundation
of the venture. Then they brought expertise
from outside the community to evaluate
those attractions and prepare them as
scenarios for tourism. The Costa Rica
Tourism Bureau was consulted and agreed
to promote their future tourism
development program La Ruta del Café.
This brought training at various levels of the
tourist venture and included tourist guides
who for the most part were local youths,
training for restaurant services, training for
bed and breakfast operations which they
changed to ‘Bed and Coffee’.
The next step was to put the project into
operation. In the Costa Rican community of
Los Santos (Santa Maria de Dota, San
Marcos de Tarrazu ) now after four years of
hard work, the Coffee Inn is progressing.
They are choosing the right location and the
work on the enviromental permits begins
before they start building at the end of the
year 2007. In the meantime there are
positive side effects of their efforts towards
sustainability of the community in that their
coffee exports went up and they are finding
new opportunities with the Chamber of
Tourism to promote La Ruta del Café.
“I believe this idea can be adapted to other
rural economically disadvantaged regions
like Change Islands. You have a situation
here that is unique in the world with the
Change Islands Newfoundland Pony Refuge.
I am sure with the baby boomers in North
America you could establish a unique
summer place for baby boomers to take
their grandchildren to ride a pony in this
beautiful environment. People now are
looking for experiences that promote
sustainability and where communities
themselves are taking control of their future.
You can do it here as well.”
HOW CAN WE MOVE FORWARD AND ACT ON THE
REALISTIC OPTIONS WHILE ENSURING SUSTAINABLE
USE OF RESOURCES AND ECOSYSTEMS
THE ENABLING CONDITIONS FOR
ECOSYSTEM GOVERNANCE
Stephen Olsen, Director, Coastal
Resources Center, Metcalf Institute for
Marine and Environmental Reporting,
University of Rhode Island,
Narrangansett, RI, USA
Introduction
We live in a time of globalization where
everything is connected to everything
else. And as the dominant species on the
planet, we are changing the planet as a
whole and that means everything is
connected to everything else, even more
so.
Distinction between management and
governance
Mr. Olsen commented that after listening
to the previous day’s dialogue and the
issues being faced in the province of
Newfoundland and Labrador, it seems
that the issues are primarily about
governance, and not merely issues of
management. “In governance you need
to take a big step back and say: Why really
are we doing this? What are our
objectives? Maybe we need to rethink
what are we doing, why we are doing it
and how we are going to measure
success”.
out how to do it in terms of governance.
“You start off by trying to find out what the
problems are. What are the issues (issues
are both problems and opportunities)?”
Then you have to figure out what to do
about it. That is preparation and all around
the world there are in place plans, studies
and reviews. Then you have to decide to do
something. “How are you are going to get
people to agree not just on the first scale
you are working at but at the next biggest
scale to move forward and do something?”
This is formalization. Then you implement
the action plan, draw some conclusions and
evaluate the plan. “You can go through all
these steps and if you don’t evaluate, then
you are not learning, and a whole lot of us
don’t learn.”
Establishing the governance baseline
To move forward from where we are we need
to construct a governance baseline. For
example, in the previous day’s dialogue we
kept asking, “What is it about Centreville
that works?” “The way to assess that is by
knowing your history; knowing your history
Since everything is connected to
everything else, we need to think
differently about our resources and how
we manage them. The term that is being
used to do this is ecosystem-based
management … “Humans are part of the
system, not separate from it … but that is
really a radical idea”. We need to apply
the principles of governance to
ecosystems, and not simply manage the
ecosystem.
This is a new way of thinking and we have
to learn how to do this. We have to figure
37
But management based on science alone will
not solve the problems - to the science you
have to add the ethics, the morality and the
spiritual dimension.
as a society of people and knowing that
history in terms of the governance. How
were the decisions made? Determine your
baseline or your starting point. What were
the results of those decisions? Where do we
see the opportunities, where do we see the
problems, from the perspective of
identifying problems and deciding to do
something about them and then either
succeeding or failing?”
Involve the people from the beginning
For things to work properly in terms of
people as part of the ecosystem, part of the
learning needs to be long-term. “People are
going to behave because of what they
believe they should do”. People in the
community need to participate from the
beginning in the process of governance and
management. And it is important to follow
the principles of accountability and fair
dealing and transparency. “If you have a
governance system that is founded on those
principles people will believe in it and you
could make things happen”.
Science, local knowledge and management
Science and local knowledge can be referred
to as ‘reliable knowledge’. “Knowledge that
you can test and probe and see if it holds
out and that means that the things the
fishermen know are just as important as what
the scientists may find out.” But
management based on science alone will
not solve the problems - to the science you
have to add the ethics, the morality and the
spiritual dimension.
Putting it together
You need the learning through the
participatory process, and “you weave it in
with reliable knowledge and you keep
coming back to ask ‘what are the facts of the
matter?’”. You have to combine the two. Mr.
Olsen commented that from his experience
38
working in many regions of the world
looking at numerous coastal issues and
marine management plans, it takes between
6 and 12 years on average to complete this
process. “It takes a long time and you can
get lost in the process. And worst of all you
can see lots of the planning and science and
no implementation”.
Goals, commitment, constituencies and
capacity
Establishing clear goals
The pre-condition for a good process is to
have clear goals. “They have got to be goals
that stir the water that people care about“.
You should be looking at everything when
you are trying to apply ecosystem-based
management, but you will probably only get
agreement on one or two things. If you
succeed with these then you can take on
others and gain strength. “If you look
around you, there are a few examples that
are working at significant spatial scales and
that have sustained their efforts over the
decades. You will see that they have come
to the conclusion that goals are critical and
as they gain in constituencies, people
understand and believe in what is being
attempted and change begins to happen”.
Building capacity
The limiting factor in making progress with
ecosystem-based management is the
capacity to practice this, not the money or
the science. “We have to build our capacity
to be good stewards and think in these
bigger terms. You don’t buy capacity, it
grows and it has to be grown place by place,
scale by scale”.
To be successful with this process, you also
have to have sustained resources over the
long term (commitment) and you need to
build the constituencies. Once you have
these in place, then you are ready to move
ahead with implementation.
Implementation
Changes needed at the institutional level
To move ahead we often need to change
behaviour in the institutions. “I suspect that
if things are going to go well here, that
things are going to have to change in the
Department of Fisheries and Oceans, and
some things are going to have to change
in the provincial government, and right
here in Change Islands some things are
going to have to change”. Having clear
goals helps you to identify what has to
change in these institutions.
Evaluation
It is critical to be clear on the goals and
then to monitor progress in meeting the
goals.
“If you are clear on your goals and if your
goals are for the ecosystem, and that
means both the people and the
environment, and you are measuring your
way towards that, and you are measuring
whether your governance capacity is
actually increasing, and if stewardship is
gaining ground, then you are moving and
you can claim success and you will
strengthen your decisions”. In the
presentation of the example of the coffee
plantation and community partnership in
tourism in Costa Rica the goals were set in
the right way; they were: How much? and,
By when? In Change Islands you could be
saying, “by 2015 what is the goal for how
many kids are going to graduate from this
school? What is the goal for how many
working boats there are? Or aquaculture
operations?” Just the fact that you have
set those goals will enable you to measure
your progress or lack of progress.
place and its people … and as someone
said yesterday you must watch out for the
idea of slapping on a solution. That won’t
work because every place and every
ecosystem is different, and every culture is
different and you really have to know the
history”. He went on to say, “I think capacity
building needs to teach us all how to
function better at building ecosystems of
knowledge and if they learn that they will be
much better off”.
A participant asked Mr. Olsen for
suggestions on how to engage the local
people in these types of discussions. He
replied that it is critical to build trust. “Where
there is any kind of conversation or any kind
of movement towards ecosystem-based
management, crucial to it all is trust, and
trust is based on mutual respect … but it
needs to be grown, fertilized, fostered, loved
and recognized as a goal”. It is critical that
people feel part of the discussion and that
what is discussed will be of direct relevance
to their lives.
“We have to build our capacity to be good
stewards and think in these bigger terms. You
don’t buy capacity, it grows and it has to be
grown place by place, scale by scale”
Discussion following Stephen Olsen’s talk
Mr. Olsen was asked to define the term
‘capacity’. He replied that, “the capacity
that we need in each place can be put
under the headings of: knowledge, skills
and attitudes”. Under knowledge the
most critical thing is to understand how
ecosystems function and change. In terms
of skills, people need to know how to
navigate the policy process and how to
combine science and participatory
democracy and take the long-term view.
With respect to attitudes, at the top of the
list is cultural awareness. “The people
doing this must really know and love the
39
SCIENCE PERSPECTIVE
DIALOGUE CIRCLE
What is the appropriate level of integration of science into
decision-making on economic development?
How can local knowledge be incorporated into decisionmaking?
How can ecosystem-based management be incorporated
into decision-making at the level of resource use?
How can we bridge the interests of politics (short term –
election cycle), economic and science (long term over
generations) to ensure sustainable use of resources?
Krista Baker, PhD Candidate, Ocean
Sciences Centre, Memorial University of
Newfoundland, St. John’s, NL
It is important to think about the possibility
that the consequences of our actions have
the potential to make the situation worse
than what it was before. This happened with
the deep sea; as the shellfishery began to
decline people looked for new species or
habitat and the deep sea offered both of
these. “At the time scientists were looking at
the deep sea but they were concerned with
understanding the ecosystem and were not
planning for any type of commercial
exploitation … they went ahead with the
fishery anyway”.
LACK OF SCIENCE IN THE CASE OF THE ROUNDNOSE GRENADIER
A Roundnose Grenadier fishery was begun in this province in 1965. The
total allowable catch was based on no biological information. It wasn’t
until 1973 that they dealt with the taxonomy and a small bit of
information about the distribution of the species. In 1989 the length
and weight relationship was described and in 1990 a bit of the basic
biology was described. Finally, in 1990 there was a publication that
dealt with age, maturity and location of juveniles. That means that it
was not until 15-25 years after the fishery began that they started to
conduct the science they needed to manage this fish and determine if
the fishery was sustainable. This pattern is true for most deep-sea
species. In fact, the Roundnose Grenadier population declined 96% in a
period that is shorter than its generation time. In this case, science was
not taken into consideration and they went ahead with economic
development (Devine, J.A., Baker, K.D. and Haedrich, R.L. 2006. Deepsea fishes qualify as endangered. Nature 439:27)
40
How can local knowledge be incorporated
into decision-making?
Local knowledge needs to be incorporated
at every step and it has to be used.
However, there should not be a standard
approach for how to do this, since every
community is different and has different
resources. Participation is key. “If you and
the local community are not participating
together in the process then they are not
going to respect it or trust it or understand
why you are, for example, setting up a
Marine Protected Area. They will ask “Why is
that protected?” “Protection depends on
compliance and compliance depends on
trust and respect.”
How can we bridge the interests of politics,
economics and science to ensure
sustainable use of resources?
“If we are using constant dialogue and
discussing issues and being frank, especially
from a science perspective, about our
uncertainties, then we are not making
promises that we can’t keep. We will have an
idea of what is available and if local people
start fighting for long-term issues and longterm sustainable development then the
politicians will follow suit”.
“If you and the local community
are not participating together in
the process then they are not
going to respect it or trust it or
understand why you are, for
example, setting up a Marine
Protected Area. They will ask
“Why is that protected?”
“Protection depends on
compliance and compliance
depends on trust and respect.”
Sue Nichols, Professor, Geodesy and
Geomatics Engineering, University of
New Brunswick, Fredericton, NB
What is the appropriate level of
integration of science into decisionmaking on economic development?
Science needs to be better targeted and
it needs to be considered a long term
initiative. Over the years governments
have not made the investment in longterm science, continuous science; they
tend to ‘pull the plug’ on funding at the
end of specific projects. Too often the
information that is gathered is put on a
shelf or lost in a project file. If we are to
make strategic economic and
environmental decisions, science data
must be processed into usable and
accessible information; the knowledge
gained with experience must be nurtured
and applied.
“We need ‘applied’ science not just
innovation” For strategic economic
development it is not enough to create a
patent or demonstrate a technology or
process. There is too much emphasis on
short term innovation today and not
enough on taking what we know and
applying it. Science is a strategic public
good, not simply a commodity. We need
opportunities to sit back and analyze what
we have learned from science projects
and programs. “Lessons learned” is real
research that needs to be funded in
addition to innovation.
For science to contribute to public policy
and decision making, scientific
information needs to be more accessible.
Currently we have many barriers to
accessibility including 1) disciplinary and
jurisdictional silos and 2) poor public
policy such as government cost recovery
and therefore “sale” of public data. It is
often more expedient for departments to
recollect data than to use data from
another program that is either too
expensive to purchase or has been
collected without multiuser standards and
criteria. Government cost recovery
policies also severely limit academics from
accessing government data. We have to
break down the barriers that impede
information sharing.
How can local knowledge be incorporated
into decision-making?
Building trust is the key through
communication and true consultation (as
opposed to simply having government
scientists ‘inform’ local stakeholders). We
also need to make science more accessible
to local communities and that means getting
it out of departmental and disciplinary silos.
For example, natural science needs to be
linked with social science.
Scientists and government also need to learn
how to ‘trust’ local knowledge. This means
active participation at the local level by
academics and government scientists. This
challenges science education: How can we
make science “participatory”? E-government
is dissemination of information to the public.
E-governance will be making that
communication a two-way information and
knowledge flow.
A large part of the disconnect between
science and local knowledge is a lack of
understanding of the benefits and
constraints each sector has. If we want to
incorporate all of our collective knowledge in
decision-making, then we need to more
respectfully understand and address the
issues of confidentiality, public
accountability, accessibility, divergent
standards, and science ethics.
There is an important role for local knowledge
but we have to find ways of putting the pieces of
the puzzle together so that they can add a layer
to our understanding for decision-making
processes.
41
Ben Davis, Acting Division Manager,
Environmental Science, Fisheries and
Oceans Canada, St. John’s, NL
What is the appropriate level of integration
of science into decision-making on
economic development?
Scientists have to recognize the boundaries
of their responsibilities. Decision-making
also depends on input with respect to
political, economic, social, historical and
traditional factors. There has to be a balance
incorporating all of these factors into
decisions. “Science can’t lead it but it is at
the front end as a basis of information that
you are going to use in the decision-making
processes.”
How can local knowledge be incorporated
into decision-making?
The sentinel survey for cod in Newfoundland
and Labrador is a very good example of how
local knowledge can be incorporated into
decision-making. Local traditional
knowledge “has an incredible richness,
depth and accuracy on a local basis.” There
is an important role for local knowledge but
we have to find ways of putting the pieces of
the puzzle together so that they can add a
layer to our understanding for decisionmaking processes.
How can ecosystem-based management be
incorporated into decision-making at the
level of resource use?
We can use ecosystem-based management
to make decisions but we have to step back
and incorporate all the inputs from all the
different variables.
“We have to be able to demonstrate that the
application of science, that is including local
knowledge and problem solving around
conservation, leads to economic advantages
and that is a very infrequent part of the
science dialogue”
42
Shane Mahoney, Executive Director,
Science Division, St. John’s Area Wildlife,
Department of Environment and
Conservation, Government of
Newfoundland and Labrador, St. John’s, NL
What is the appropriate level of integration
of science into decision-making on
economic development?
“We have to be able to demonstrate that
the application of science, that is including
local knowledge and problem solving
around conservation, leads to economic
advantages and that is a very infrequent part
of the science dialogue”.
There are a number of possible indicators of
whether science is being effectively
integrated into the decision-making
process. These include:
Government policy adherence to
international protocols and conventions
There are a number of international
protocols that are built on science as a basis
for public policy and a tool for decisionmaking. In many cases our government is
not adhering to these policy guidelines. To
do this we have to recognize the importance
of these conventions and protocols and
then adhere to them.
A science culture in government
There needs to be a ‘science culture’ within
government or else policy and decisions
that emanate from government at any level
will not reflect science as a necessary
fundamental factor in the decisions with
respect to conservation and sustainability of
communities.
Linkages between science and other
sectors
There also needs to be a linkage that ties
together the ‘islands’ of knowledge in
universities and government. “We have to
have a mechanism of linking between them
that is holistic and ongoing.” But we also
have to have a mechanism to link between
government and society, including
academia, industry and communities.
Science funded by industry
Industry should be a major player and
funder of science. “Industry benefits
enormously from the resources that are
used, that are captured by individual
citizens. Enormous profits go to them so
they have in my view a moral responsibility
to reinvest and we have to have a
mechanism in place whereby government
can link to industry in this regard.”
A mechanism to utilize local knowledge
It is important to involve local knowledge,
but there must be a mechanism in place
for gathering information and giving it
back. It has to be ongoing and
recognized. “It has to be a mechanism for
evaluating the quality of the information
coming from communities, and at the
same time it has to teach people about
the value of consistency in gathering data
or repeatability as the basis for science, if
we are going to use this information
wisely.”
These indicators will require consistent
investment by governments, arms-length
structures that people can trust, a
continuum between industry, the
academic community, government and
communities and ongoing training and
education. “This will require investments
by the people that have the greatest
capacity which are governments and
industry. Individuals in communities like
Change Islands do not have that
capacity.”
Joe Wroblewski, Professor, Ocean
Sciences Centre, Memorial University of
Newfoundland, St. John’s, NL
Integrating Science into Decision Making
– The story of the Golden Cod: a case
study in Gilbert Bay
“This is a good news story and it really is a
story that shows that when people can
plainly see that a resource is their own,
they will take care of it.” (See box on page
43)
INTEGRATING SCIENCE INTO DECISION MAKING – THE STORY OF THE
GOLDEN COD: A CASE STUDY IN GILBERT BAY
Dr. Joe Wroblewski, Professor, Ocean Sciences Centre, Memorial
Univeristy of Newfoundland, St, John’s, NL
The communities of Williams Harbour and Port Hope Simpson which
are located on either side of Gilbert Bay in Labrador knew they had a
local stock of cod because it had a different colouration, compared with
an offshore cod. These ‘golden cod’ get their colour from a compound
found in plants, carotenoids. The cod have more pigment in their skin
because they eat lower in the food chain, feeding on more
invertebrates, crab and trout, compared with the normal cod that feed
on capelin.
Inshore stocks are part of an inshore-outshore stock complex and we do
not know a lot about the dynamics of this complex. We are hoping that
by rebuilding the inshore stocks we will eventually recolonize the
offshore. The inshore is the prime habitat – there is food year round for
the cod, good reproduction, and good recirculation through the bays,
as opposed to the offshore. From our communications with local
inshore fishermen and other community members we know that there
are a number of inshore stocks of cod in this province; there is the
Trinity Bay stock near Change Islands, Placentia Bay has inshore stocks,
one was identified in Halifax Harbour in the 1960s and there is the
golden cod in Gilbert Bay in Labrador. “There should also be some
inshore stocks along the northern peninsula and even more in coastal
Labrador than presently scientifically documented”.
This case study is about how local people decided to protect their
‘golden cod’ and set up a Marine Protected Area in Gilbert Bay,
Labrador, based on their knowledge of this special inshore stock. This is
also an example of community-based science in action. “It has been
successful for me as a scientist and it has been successful for the
community, because the science is essentially validating their local
ecological knowledge and therefore they can use their local ecological
knowledge with confidence in co-management”.
The community began by contacting the DFO and learned that under
the Oceans Action Plan there was a structure for them to take control of
their local resource. They carried out planning based on their
knowledge of where the cod were, where they spawned and where they
fed and they identified these as specific ‘zones’. They also worked
together with scientists from Memorial University. After several years of
planning this was declared an MPA by the Minister of Fisheries and
Oceans in October 2005.
The MPA is a no-fishing zone; however, it allows for a scallop harvest
and the Metis Nation has their salmon and char and cod bycatch
fisheries. In 2006, the Gilbert Bay Committee has decided that they will
allow a recreational fishery, but they have specified which specific areas
it can take place in. It also allows for an experimental grow operation of
Icelandic scallops.
43
Applying the Gilbert Bay example
elsewhere in the province
“You can do this here too. There are local
stocks around. This is a model. Follow it. If
you have heard that Gilbert Bay is unique or
different, it is not true. The whole
mechanism here is open to communities to
take charge of your local stocks of cod,
herring, capelin and other species. You
know what is out there in the bay”.
General Discussion
The issue of policy
A participant noted that it is not possible to
have a thriving industry without some
groundwork on policy. For example, Canada
has a lot to learn about policy in the
agriculture sector from the US. There, they
go out into the field, or fishery or farm, and
they consult with the people. Policy there is
more on the stage of the politicians whereas
in Canada it seems to be tied up in the
bureaucracy.
In response, Mr. Mahoney agreed that in
Canada the mechanisms of input by the
citizenry are not effective. “Democracy is
more alive in the United States than it is in
Canada. What we have to realize is that
there aren’t just two players in the creation
of policy, the bureaucracy and the elected
governance. Rather there are three pillars
and the other pillar is the citizenry itself”. He
suggested that policy development should
increasingly come from the outside and “ to
achieve this we are going to have to be
bold, as a community and as a society and
as governments, in allowing more of that
kind of activity to take place at arms-length
institutions”. One part of the solution is to
develop organizations and structures such as
the Harris Centre at Memorial University.
These structures could be “at arms length institutes or similar structures where the
citizenry and elected government have
equal access but neither have better access
or preferred access”. However, what is not
clear is how to get there, in part because it is
going to take a decision by government to
allow this to happen. Perhaps this is a role
for ‘wealthy philanthropists’ – to reinvest in
society by forming policy generating
44
“It has to be clear that this wasn’t a
decision made on science alone - it
was implemented at a different
level”.
institutes that are at arms length from
government.
We have to be clear as to how science is
used, where it is used, and to what extent it
is used in policy and decisions. We talk
about the need for transparency in science,
but should we not also be demanding
transparency in decision-making based on
policy and science. For example, very few
scientists would agree with the policy that
dictated the reopening of the cod fishery at
this point in their recovery. “Yet the decision
to reopen the fishery is couched in terms of
science and implies that science is
suggesting it is a policy that is viable”.
Similarly for the decision not to list the cod
as an ‘endangered species’, there should
have been transparency where we would
know that the decision was made at a
different level of science and additional
aspects were considered in making the
decision. “It has to be clear that this wasn’t a
decision made on science alone - it was
implemented at a different level”. Perhaps
this decision was only 10% based on science
and the remaining 90% was based on socioeconomic considerations.
Who is responsible for the science and how
can we make science more interactive with
people who are affected by scientific
suggestions?
Who should be responsible for conducting
public scientific research? “The questions
are: What should be the balance of research
among universities, government,
independent institutes? and What balance
will be fixed in soliciting participation in the
field of people who are affected, fishermen,
fish harvesters, the communities? and then,
What is the best way to make this happen
and make this more transparent and more
interactive?”
Mr. Olsen noted that the term ‘reliable
knowledge’ may be a more useful way to
think about this, rather than just ‘science’.
“Science tends to mean peer-reviewed
science. It also tends to mean natural
science and not social science. You have
to remind people when you are talking
about science that you are including the
social sciences as well because everyone
assumes that you are not doing that”.
There doesn’t seem to be a formula for
how you get the balance. However, “as
with other things principles hold, you have
got to have people in society who can
speak truth to power. … You need to
create a context within which truth is
spoken to power and how that fits in any
given culture is going to be driven by that
culture”. One of the biggest challenges is
to cross the ‘gulf’ that exists between
scientists and policy makers. Only when
that happens will we be able to ensure
“that what we believe to be the scientific
truth is clearly understood”. He stressed
that we have to work collectively to
achieve that understanding so that we
have informed consent by all when it
comes out as policy.
Mr. Mahoney noted that we “do not have
enough good research and we do not
have enough targeted research overall”.
He commented that one positive action
would be to reinstate the former Fisheries
Research Board – “we need to create
intermediary bodies between those two
societies, government and the university,
that are viewed as even more
independent and focused on applied
science issues”.
“What we have to realize is that there aren’t just
two players in the creation of policy, the
bureaucracy and the elected governance. Rather
there are three pillars and the other pillar is the
citizenry itself”
not quantifiable, but that doesn’t mean it is
not important”.
Mr. Mahoney agreed. “One of the reasons
given for not incorporating the inshore
fisheries information in the models that were
generated around cod fisheries was because
it was not easy, or practical, to quantify the
catch per unit effort in the inshore fishery
programs. This was a mistake”. He
suggested that what we can do at the
interface between science and traditional
knowledge is “to try to find a way to sharpen
both in their sensitivities towards the other”.
Another possibility is to request that people
categorize their knowledge in different ways
to make the knowledge more accessible to
non-traditional people like scientists and the
public. “It happens in wildlife science a great
deal, it has not traditionally happened in
fisheries science”.
Perhaps it comes back to the point of being
really thoughtful about what your questions
are and what you want to know. Reference
was made to the comment of Dr. Neis that
when you are dealing with fishermen’s
knowledge, it is key to ask “Why do you
believe that?” “It depends on what you are
asking. You can get quantifiable information
How do we integrate local knowledge
into the existing framework?
If we were to co-manage fisheries, it is not
clear how local knowledge could be
integrated into the framework that we
have. Fishermen have knowledge that
cannot be quantified. Does that mean it
doesn’t exist? In the natural or social
sciences they tend to use only the data
that can be quantified. “I disagree with
that because there is a lot of knowledge
that my father has on the fisheries in
Placentia Bay and his father had, and it is
45
by asking: What did you see? How many did
you kill? How long did it take you to do x, y,
or z?”
INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE
DIALOGUE CIRCLE
Research focused on action
With reference to the Golden Cod case
study, it is important that universities have a
policy in place to encourage research
focused on action and field work. However, it
was noted that too often that the driver of
what kind of research gets done is simply the
amount of funding that can be obtained .
What are the critical information needs
of industry?
Maintaining the commitment and
evaluating the success
With respect to the Gilbert Bay example, it is
important to understand how the people
remain engaged and what the measure of
success is. In fact, the original Steering
Committee has now transitioned from a
planning structure to a co-management
body. The Committee is made up of the
fisheries unions, the Metis Nation and the
local communities. One of the issues that
had to be dealt with was what to do with the
food fishery. Research showed that only 20%
of the cod caught were the Gilbert Bay cod
and the rest were coming from the straits or
offshore. Clearly then it was best to have the
food fishery offshore. Another continuing
issue is related to the Icelandic scallop
fishery that is using dragging nets in the
MPA. However, studies with multi-beam
technology have shown that they are only
dragging on gravel and they are not killing
anything harmful. This research is ongoing.
How does industry maintain and enhance
infrastructure in coastal communities with
a shrinking work force?
“It is right there on the bylaws of the MPA
steering committee, it is for the future, it is
for the children, it is the heritage, it is the
culture.”
The crisis has resulted in part because of our
unrealistic expectations for the fishery. We now
have to ask the difficult questions about what we
expect from the fishery and we have to confront
the myths on which the fishery is based.
What steps are being taken to ensure
sustainable business practices?
What potential partnerships and
collaborations does industry envisage in
order to implement needed changes?
What models of management does
industry think are needed so that their
needs, community needs and ecosystem
needs are met?
Derek Butler, Executive Director,
Association of Seafood Producers, St.
John’s, NL
The fishing industry perspective
What are the critical (information) needs of
industry? What models of management
does industry think are needed so that their
needs, community needs and ecosystem
needs are met?
The need for industry renewal
A renewal process is underway in the
fisheries to address the current crisis. This
crisis comes when we have just finished a
period of four to five years of historic landed
and production values. The crisis has been
precipitated by currency and market
problems, but it has really, “revealed that
our fisheries are built on a house of cards”.
The crisis has resulted in part because of our
unrealistic expectations for the fishery. We
now have to ask the difficult questions about
what we expect from the fishery and we
have to confront the myths on which the
fishery is based.
Our goal in terms of policy in the fisheries
industry has been to maximize employment.
46
Put another way, “we have dispersed the
value of the fishery amongst the largest
number of participants conceivable and I
think that makes it unviable - unviable for
plants, producers, harvesters, and
politicians too who have been faced with
dealing with the crisis every time we lose a
plant.” This policy has led to plant
closures – even at a time when the
fisheries have historically high values. For
example, we went from six or seven crab
plants to thirty-eight, based on the goal of
maximizing employment. The crab plant
capacity could now process five times the
world supply of crab. That is
unsustainable. “Given that plants are
going bankrupt, we have structured it the
wrong way”.
new businesses coming into the province,
and an innovation strategy with funding to
help innovative ideas get ‘kick started’.
There is a network of regional staff in twenty
economic zone areas that assist business,
industry and communities in furthering their
own business and economic agendas.
A new approach is needed
To make the fishery more flexible and
viable we need to set different goals in
terms of what we expect. It needs to be
more flexible for both the fishermen and
the processors. “We need resource
managers from the top in DFO that put
the resource first and then we need the
structure and the flexibility to allow us to
make the best individual choices”. And
“We need to talk about adequate work
within individual plants and harvesters.
That means setting the goals of what
amount of product needs to go through a
plant to make a plant viable and currently
it is not sustainable”.
How does industry maintain and enhance
infrastructure in coastal communities with a
shrinking work force?
The Department of Innovation Trade and
Rural Development has organizational
infrastructure that benefits coastal
communities. They work with twenty regional
economic development boards, and
cooperate with the federal government,
particularly ACOA, with a focus on furthering
economic development in the regions.
There is also a capacity building program.
“We work with communities and provide
small amounts of funds, and provide
facilitators to help community-based
organizations fully develop their capacity”.
John Wickham, Director, Regional
Economic Development, NL Department
of Innovation, Trade and Rural
Development, St. John’s, NL
What models of management does industry
think are needed so that their needs,
community needs and ecosystem needs are
met?
The government is very committed to the
Regional Economic Development Boards. In
addition, they work closely with various
industry associations; for example, the Craft
Council of Newfoundland and Labrador and
the Newfoundland Ocean Industries
Association.
What are the critical information needs of
industry?
Government offers policy support to
industry through the Business Retention
and Expansion program, based on a
comprehensive research program.
What potential partnerships and
collaborations does industry envisage in
order to implement needed changes?
The Department of Innovation Trade and
Rural Development has a strategic
partnerships initiative in place. It includes
representatives from government, business,
community and labour and it meets regularly
to discuss issues, policy and moving forward
with healthy policy and program decisions.
What steps are being taken to ensure
sustainable business practices?
The Government has a number of
programs in place to address sustainable
business practices, including programs for
47
Shane Noble, New Wood Manufacturers
Inc., Centreville, NL
What are the critical information needs of
industry?
It is critical in our business to know about
market trends and market needs. “I talk to
my consumers about the types of products
that they need and when I get that
information I go back and adapt my plant to
meet those needs. I am producing a
different product today than I was ten years
ago”. The business is constantly evolving
and is looking for opportunities to add value
to the current products, and to better utilize
all the material. For example, the waste is
used by the tanning industry in the province.
Information from agencies such as ACOA
and the National Research Council can be
very helpful in developing new business
ideas and markets.
How does industry maintain and enhance
infrastructure in coastal communities with a
shrinking work force?
The work force is shrinking and this is a
problem. “To address this, we are improving
our technology. This eliminates jobs, but
because I am lowering my workforce I am
able to increase what I am able to pay for
the remaining workforce”.
What potential partnerships and
collaborations does industry envisage in
order to implement needed changes?
Government can hinder our progress by
using examples of success and encouraging
others to do the same thing, “instead of
building off of each other”. Partnerships
between businesses utilizing different
aspects of a material would strengthen the
industry. Working with other businesses in
cooperatives can be very effective; for
example, in Central Newfoundland there are
six or seven companies who are coming
together to negotiate improved shipping
rates.
There needs to be more consideration of
the development of smaller scale markets.
“You do not always have to export globally.
There are always conferences going on
about how to export to the States, to
Iceland, etc. … you need to develop slowly
first, develop as a small scale business and
then gradually grow. … If we enter an
international market and we are not
prepared we will get gobbled up”.
Herb Bown, Stages and Stores Foundation,
Change Islands, NL
See Stages and Stores Case Study, box on
page 49
What is needed?
Having access to broadband internet would
make a big difference for this company as
much of the product is sold over the
internet. It would also be helpful to have
better banking access; for example, our
business has to deal with a bank in Gander
or Lewisport. In terms of government
partners it would be best if they worked with
us as a partner, and not just as a source of
funding. We need to participate more as
partners. “The dollars from government are
important but not nearly as important as
understanding our situations and working
with us”. In some cases, it would even be
better not to take the funding because of
the associated bureaucracy. In order to fully
partner with government however a better
infrastructure would have to be put in place.
48
“The dollars from government
are important but not nearly as
important as understanding our
situations and working with us”.
Collaboration is key
We need to have better collaboration
within communities and between
communities; for example, between
Change Islands and the Kittiwake
Economic Zone and between provincial
and federal governments. “We are not
talking to each other enough, we are not
referring business to each other and we
need to be doing more of that. … I don’t
look at people in this region as
competitors but we need to share
information and we can all grow by
helping each other”.
Excessive regulations faced by small
businesses
The government has to create an
environment with better respect for the
needs of small business. A lot of the
regulations and policies that are set up
are with urban areas in mind. “I have
made many appeals to government to
implement change and that has not
seemed to happen”.
Understanding small business
We need to have a better understanding
of the ways and processes used in
communities. “My father and grandfather
were fishermen. In essence they ran small
businesses. The need for people then to
cooperate in the way that they cooperate
today in small businesses is slightly
different. These people helped each
other when the need was there. If the
boat broke down or someone was sick
these people helped one another but
when nothing was wrong, people worked
independently. This is not the case now.
We need to work together and cooperate;
we need to be more caring, more
cooperative amongst ourselves, within this
community and within the larger
community”.
ADDRESSING THE QUESTIONS FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF A LOCAL
SMALL BUSINESS – STAGES AND STORES
Stages and Stores, Inc. is an integrated multifaceted corporation
incorporated on 9 March 2001 with headquarters and
manufacturing facilities in the community of Change Islands,
Newfoundland & Labrador, and design and sales offices in Ottawa,
Ontario, and Calgary, Alberta. Stages and Stores operates an
online eCommerce arts and crafts boutique (www.stagesandstores.
com) and provides wholesale sales and services to bring to the
world the best of Newfoundland and Labrador arts and crafts.
It is a privately owned venture that incorporates the principles of
community economic development. In 2004-2006 the activities have
been extended to include the following business activities:
• An Internet eCommerce Arts and Crafts Boutique
• The Burgundy Squid Cafe and Craft Shoppe
• The Torraville Heritage Cottage Rental Property
• The Main Tickle Change Islands Newspaper
Stages and Stores is a member of the Craft Council of
Newfoundland and Labrador and contributes financially to the
mission of the Stages and Stores Heritage Foundation, Inc. to
preserve and promote the unique fisheries buildings of one of the
picturesque Newfoundland outport fishing communities. The
business activities support the Foundation and profits from the
business are transferred to the foundation to restore and maintain
fishing properties. Restoration is carried out by local people and all
material used in the restoration is purchased through locally owned
general shops. All employment for the corporation and foundation
is supplied locally.
49
NEWFOUNDLAND PONY REFUGE
Beverly Stevens, Change Islands Newfoundland Pony Refuge,
Change Islands, NL
History of the Newfoundland pony
The history of the Newfoundland pony is one of the most shameful
parts of our history. The ponies started coming to Newfoundland in
the 1600s and evolved over hundreds of years into the present day
pony. In the late 1960s and early 1970s there were upwards of 13,000
ponies. “Virtually every family in rural Newfoundland owned a pony.
They used them for going into the woods in the winter, they used
them for small farming needs and in places like Bell Island, they
literally lived down in the mines their whole lives”. But in the 1970s
the population of ponies began to decline. The decline coincided
with two factors, the introduction of the snowmobile and other
mechanized equipment, and anti-roaming laws. To protect people’s
lawns the government imposed the anti-roaming laws to prevent farm
animals from roaming. “With the introduction of the snow mobile,
fishermen did not need to feed ponies in the winter and with the antiroaming laws it meant that they did need to feed them in the
summer. No one had the money then to keep a pony for the whole
year. The population went from 13,000 to under 200. They came
from Quebec and took them away in truckloads”. Nine years ago the
government of Newfoundland declared the pony a ‘heritage’ animal
and gave the mandate to the Pony Society to “preserve, protect and
to help the numbers grow”. There are 88 breeding aged ponies left in
Newfoundland, 230 world-wide.
Challenges and Opportunities
Part of the challenge in setting up the Refuge has been to secure
funding. We have received two grants from Service Canada for
pasture land, fencing and a job creation project for two people. Over
the long term we expect to provide employment for upwards of five
people, full-time, as well as for students in the summer.
In the future a barn, stable and permanent fencing for the pastures
will be added. In order to do this we will have to deal with Hydro and
the Department of Agriculture for drainage and water table concerns,
Environmental Assessment, and Highways for culverts, and Crown
Lands for any deeds or grants that may be there. “I have already
started the process and I am hoping that by November 2007 I will
have approval for these developments.”
It is very difficult to get something going in rural Newfoundland. For
example, in terms of funding, there are a number of agencies that are
involved: ACOA, Services Canada, Natural Resource, Agriculture,
Rural Secretariat, and Enhancement Programs. These agencies are
spread out all over Newfoundland – “there is no one place where a
person can go to access and be able to work through all of this.
There is road block after road block”.
50
Discussion on the industry perspective and
how we move forward
On the Renewal project
Clearly we need rationalization of the fish
processing industry, but, “When it comes to
restructuring we should ask ourselves what
are we restructuring for, and who are we
restructuring for”. In terms of ‘who’ it makes
sense to be restructuring for the people that
remain in the industry in the communities,
not the people who are leaving, or the
companies.
Mr. Butler agreed that the end goal should
be in terms of the people who remain –
“they have to be the beneficiaries of a
rationalization process”. Ideologically the
government is committed to fewer plants.
“With shrimp, for example, our most viable
species in terms of resource abundance, we
want to go from two, three or four months of
operation to eight or ten. If we set those
kinds of goals for ourselves and then
remove a number of plants and spread the
resource out over a longer period of time,
then we can increase the amount of work
available for both harvesters and plant
workers. That should be our goal”.
There is the additional problem that a
number of fish plants have been unable to
open because they cannot keep the workers
– investments in technology can enhance
productivity but there still is a labour
shortage.
How is it that plants are being shut down
and yet there are hundreds of thousands of
pounds of ocean resources being brought
into Bay Roberts and other ports, and
then being shipped out. Who is benefiting
from this arrangement?
Mr. Wickham noted that for market
reasons it is not possible for all the fish
that are landed to be processed in the
province; for example, “people in Boston
do not want lobster or crab in ‘tins or
sandwich spread’ … they want it to come
in the shell”. To maximize value for both
lobster and crab it is best to send it out of
the province in the shell. For other species
it may not be possible to process them in
the province, possibly because of size or
because of the high wages for labour. At
the same time, Newfoundland ships in raw
materials from other locations (e.g. Nova
Scotia) for processing in the province. He
noted that if the fish is left in the water,
then “it is of no value to anyone”. A
participant disagreed and commented “If
the resource is too small to process … it
would be a benefit to the resource to
leave it in the water. It would be a benefit
to shareholders”.
Mr. Wickham noted that we need to have
a formal resource optimization policy for
the province.
Mr. Olsen asked: “What is the problem
here? You cannot get the labour for the
business that you have and yet the people
here have to leave. Is it a problem of
wages?” In reply it was noted that in one
community that has a shellfish plant, 87%
of the work force is on Employment
Insurance. “The challenge is that the
younger people are no longer willing to
stay for the wages we can pay for the
amount of work available. Six weeks,
seven, ten weeks work is no longer
enough”.
most successful initiatives are not
government driven initiatives. Rather these
initiatives came from people with ideas and
who did the research, with the government
playing a facilitating role.
expressed that IQs lead to ITQs that in turn
lead to corporate ownership of quotas and
the loss of the owner/operator. It is
important to be vigilant about every piece of
policy put forward by both provincial and
federal governments in the future.
On government bureaucracy
Who can offer guidance on programs and
regulations? How do we coordinate a single
window? Is one stop shopping appropriate?
Mr. Bown noted that there are problems with
coordination at the government service
centres. “If you go for instance to see the
government office for a building permit and
the guy who looks after handicap issues is
sitting three feet away you cannot see him
on the same day as you see the building
permit guy. You have to go back five times”.
Mr Wickham encouraged people to contact
the Department’s Gander office. He noted
that it is almost impossible to have one stop
shopping but what might be useful is ‘first
stop shopping’. The challenge in all
government services in small communities is
that there is not enough horsepower on the
ground.
On IQs
It was acknowledged that fish is not a
common property resource anymore.
Concern was expressed with respect to
Individual Quotas. “We’ve moved into IQs
and it has to stop here if any community is
going to survive”. Concerns were
51
“The challenge is that the younger people are no
longer willing to stay for the wages we can pay
for the amount of work available. Six weeks,
seven, ten weeks work is no longer enough”.
An example was provided where
applications had gone in to move forward
with some development in Indian Bay, and
the Town agreed, but the Municipal Affairs
responded that the town did not know what
was good for them and overrode the Town’s
decision.
Possibly we need to delegate more authority
to the provincial regulators so that they are
tailored to the different needs of the
province.
Addressing the work force issues
We need to get the message out about the
quality of life here and that should be
weighed into the consideration of wages.
On tourism and promoting the
Newfoundland Pony Project
Signage needs to be improved.
Communities have invested in a lot of
excellent resources in their history, but it is
not well-communicated, especially in the
rural areas. It would be good to have “a
communication strategy that involves
everything from the signs on the highway,
the conditions of the road and beyond that”.
Once again bureaucracy gets in the way. “I
am trying to get some signs put on the Trans
Canada Highway to tell people to come to
Change Islands and to see the ponies. I
have to have a permit to approve the
designs, I have to have Highways
Department approve the locations, I have to
have a permit to allow people to install them
and specifications for the sizes and the
positions, and it just keeps going on and on.
It is a nightmare to have three signs posted”.
It is critical that communities cooperate with
each other instead of competing for the
same tourist dollars.
On the role of government
It was noted that most successful initiatives
are not government driven initiatives. Rather
52
these initiatives came from people with
ideas and who did the research, with the
government playing a facilitating role.
Others believe that the government “just
gets in the way”. They establish regulations
and procedures and the small business
owner has to obey them. Governments have
limited capital to support start up
businesses – in most many cases businesses
have to go somewhere else to secure
funding to start up. However, others noted
that there are some parts of government
that are necessary. In many cases,
regulations are necessary and someone
needs to assess the businesses. “But they
shouldn’t be saying this is what you should
be doing”.
“Tenacity, sheer tenacity is the only way that
small business is going to survive in rural
communities.”
MORE BATHROOMS THAN CHILDREN: THE
IMPACT OF POPULATION CHANGE
Alison Earle, Assistant Deputy Minister,
Rural Secretariat, Government of
Newfoundland and Labrador, St. John’s, NL
Introduction
The population has changed in
Newfoundland and Labrador and this is
having a significant impact on our society
and our future. The Community Accounts
information (www.communityaccounts.ca)
describes statistics for populations in
communities, regions, province-wide. There
is additional information listed; e.g.,
education levels, health levels, use of
employment insurance, social assistance,
and out-migration levels. Everything at a
community level is totally accessible. This
information was compiled in cooperation
with Memorial University, the Province and
Statistics Canada and it is public
information.
Transforming information into knowledge
These data and information have to be
translated into knowledge. Joe Wroblewski
talked about knowledge. We have to talk
about it, we have to educate one another
and we have to learn how to speak a
common language. We also need to
understand where we come from in order
to understand and figure out where we
are going.
Family size in Newfoundland is dwindling
Think about how many brothers and
sisters your parents had and then think
about how many siblings you have and
then how many children you have. “I will
use my family as an example. My father
who was from Change Islands came from
a family where he was one of ten children.
He had three children and his children had
no children (by choice). That is a fairly
drastic occurrence. It is not totally
uncommon but that equation from large
family to smaller numbers to nothing is
part of the dynamic that is affecting our
population in Newfoundland and
Labrador today.”
The history of settlement in
Newfoundland
At first Newfoundland was settled only on
the coast. There was no one who lived in
the interior. We worked with fish and it
didn’t matter that we were on an island or
off an island because we traveled by the
sea. Everything we did was on the sea.
The sea was our transportation. We went
everywhere by boat. That was just the
way it was. In the late 19th century a
railway was built across the province and
that started to change things. The TransCanada Highway followed the railway
lines. It was not until the late 19th and
early 20th centuries that any communities
started to be established in the interior.
That started to shift our transportation
patterns. Today when we build
infrastructure, our communities are all
around the periphery, the transportation
route goes through the middle and the
communities that are starting to develop
are those that have direct and easy access
to those transportation routes. That is
part of the population shift that we have
seen. It started to move away from the
coast when we opened up the pulp and
paper industry and the railway lines and
that started only about a hundred years
ago. It started much later in Labrador.
Establishment of communities
Where people settled was determined by
things like ports and safe harbours, or arable
land around a wood supply. They looked for
things to sustain themselves. Then services
followed wherever the communities were they didn’t put a school somewhere and
then people followed that. Immigration into
Newfoundland essentially stopped by 1850.
All our population growth after that was
natural. We were the recipient of the UK,
99.9% of the people that came here were
from Scotland, Ireland, Wales and England.
The population was very homogenous but
split on religion and you can see from our
communities where the religions settled.
After 1850 our population grew from our
own large families. Out-migration from this
island has always been a part of our history. If
you had eight kids in a family, four to six
might go and two might stay. Right now if
we have two kids and they both go then we
are not replacing ourselves. We have the
lowest fertility rates in the world.
Population decline in Change Islands
In 1845 Change Islands had a population of
316. By 1884, forty years later, the
population had tripled and had reached 934.
That was by natural means. By 1901 the
population had gone up to just over 1,000
and by 1911 it was stable at nearly 1,100. By
1921 it had started to decline. There were a
53
After 1850 our population grew from our
own large families. Out-migration from this
island has always been a part of our history.
If you had eight kids in a family, four to six
might go and two might stay. Right now if
we have two kids and they both go then we
are not replacing ourselves. We have the
lowest fertility rates in the world.
lot of young men in this community who
died in the First World War, as happened all
over Newfoundland and Labrador. “In fact,
we will never have an exact idea of what that
war did to this Province in terms of social
and economic development. The loss of
that generation for a population of our size
was catastrophic.” By 1928, the population
in Change Islands was declining. Between
1921 and 1951 the population had dropped
by 150. By 1961 it had dropped by another
two hundred and was down to 740. By 1971
it was down to six hundred. By 1981 it was
down to 580, and by 1991 it was down to
524. The census of 2001 gave the
population as 316. That is the population
shift in Change Islands. “People here now
could probably guess where it will be in the
next census.”
Change Islands is not alone. Fogo Island in
a five-year period (1996-2001) lost nineteen
per cent of its population. Conch on the
northern peninsula lost twenty-three percent
of its population in the same time. Two
factors affected the provincial population;
one was an increase in education levels and
the other was the consequence of the cod
moratorium, leading to a revolution in the
fishery and the changing rural population
dynamic
What do we need to have sustainable
communities?
What are the factors that make communities
sustainable? The first one is people.
Without people we do not have
communities. It is not sufficient to just have
people - you also have to have certain
structures with that and certainly having
54
young people in that equation is critical to
the long-term sustainability of communities.
What are the implications of that change?
People need employment – that is the key.
Post-secondary education and employment
are the reasons that people move. Without
employment people cannot stay. It is
created by people with businesses. People
create employment. “Shane is the one who
is the entrepreneur. He is bold. He is
building businesses, he is networking, he is
doing all of it.” Businesses need money,
markets, and skilled labourers. If we are
educating our young people to leave here
we will not have any skilled labour left. This
is happening all over this Province. This is
why those fish plants are having trouble
recruiting people. “Young people want
stable jobs, year round employment and
benefits. They don’t want to work six weeks
of the year. They tell us that all the time.”
We need energy, infrastructure, and raw
materials. We also need to have the
business services like banking. We need
public services but public services do not
keep people in their communities. We need
adaptability but also the ability to work
cooperatively. “If Fogo, Twillingate and
Changes Islands do not see that they
collectively have the same issues and have
to work together then we are on a rapid
slide right down the tubes.” A community is
defined more broadly than just the people
that live in the immediate community.
Finally, we need certain faith in our future.
The lack of faith is the biggest single
contributor to out-migration. Surveys with
high school students show that nine out of
ten students say they don’t see a future in
this province. Who is telling them that?
First it is their parents and second their
teachers. We need to instill a sense that
there is a future, if we want it.
The Rural Secretariat is trying to achieve
collaboration between governments and
citizens. This will not happen in a hurry. It
involves talking to communities, helping
people to have a vision of the future, and
helping government and communities work
together – it is about trust.
COMMUNITY PERSPECTIVE
DIALOGUE CIRCLE
Steve Plante, Professeur, Geography,
University de Quebec a Rimouski,
Rimouski, PQ
Together with colleagues Dr. Plante
conducts research on how decisions are
made on some island communities in the
St. Lawrence River including: Ile aux Grue,
Ile aux Coudres, Notre Dame de Sept
Douleurs, Anticosti Islands, Harrington
Harbour, Chevery and Shippagan and
Lameque/Miscou Islands. Much like
Change Islands these islands are
experiencing rapid changes in population
structure - younger residents are moving
to more central locations and the existing
population is aging. Many people have
purchased homes for a seasonal residence
and in some of these communities the
seasonal residents now outnumber the
permanent population. These dynamics
make research on governance and
capacity building in this area very
interesting. They study:
• the traditions of these communities
• the existing institutions both
governmental and non-governmental,
• the processes that determine how
power is exercised,
• how citizens or groups are given a voice,
and
• how decisions on issues of public
concern are made.
Capacity building refers to the efforts
within a community to develop or improve
skills or societal infrastructure to enable
the community not only to work together
to achieve a common vision for the future
but also to be able to respond to the
requirements of that vision. In this way,
capacity building can reduce the level of
risk or threat to the community.
What stands out from the research to date
is how the governance structures are
changing with the dynamics of the
changing population. In one community,
for example, the balance of power shifted
What is the appropriate role for communities in management
of adjacent resources?
Who are the key players in the community who can facilitate
change?
How can we encourage people to get involved?
How do we support and maintain their involvement given the
tasks and frustrations?
How can community structures be modified/utilized to effect
change?
How can communities coordinate efforts with other
communities to achieve common goals on a larger scale?
What mechanisms need to be in place to ensure the
development of leadership within and among rural
communities?
to the seasonal population and the
permanent residents could not build the
desired bridge that would have made life in
the winter a lot easier. On two other islands
plans to protect agricultural lands were very
different - one in which agricultural lands
were officially protected and the other not yet the high demand for land and housing
on both of these islands led farmers in both
places to sell their properties for residential
development. As a result, existing farm
families and young families who might have
wanted to remain on the islands could no
longer afford to live there because of the
increased cost of housing.
The research also shows that different actors
in the communities have different
perceptions of the importance of the
resource, be it agriculture or fishing – the
perspectives of the farmer, the government
authorities, the fishermen, or the seasonal
residents are all very different. Therefore,
governance becomes very important since
many people have a voice and want to
participate but it is not clear who has the
legitimate voice to represent the concerns of
a group. The issue of leadership is also
important. For example, if a project is lead
by a government official, whether it is
provincial or federal, then there is generally a
lack of trust at the community level. Often
55
the language and discourse of these officials
is not clearly understood by the local
authorities and there is a feeling of
inadequacy. Again capacity building at the
community level can help to clarify the
language and better communicate the
objectives of the project.
“Governance and capacity building go hand
in hand. Capacity building is important at
every scale – the decision maker, the public
officer, the government officer and nongovernmental organizations. Everybody has
to develop and improve their skills”.
Freeman Compton, Fogo Island
Development Association, Fogo Island, NL
Declining population on Fogo Island
Three years ago the school population was
480. At the last count it was 320 and the
elementary part of the school will now have
to be given up as a school. The island has
gone from a population of 3,000 a few years
ago to an estimated current population of
2,500. For the Town of Joe Batt’s Arm and
Bard Islands, the second most recent census
reported a population of 875 – it is down
now to less than 700. “As Alison Earle said,
that in itself is an indication that our
communities are in danger.”
How can community structures be
modified/utilized to effect change?
A sustainable development planning
process
The council for the Town of Joe Batt’s Arm
and Bard Islands is proceeding with a
sustainable development planning process,
a process that will apply to the Town but also
the larger community of Fogo Island which
includes eleven towns in total. As the plan
developed it became clear that the process
was beyond the scope of the Town and so
the process was transferred to the larger
umbrella organization, Fogo Island
Development Association.
The three major areas of community interest
include: concerns about fisheries, Fogo
Island as a tourist destination, and the
development of small scale and cottage
type industry. The proposed planning
56
process has been shared with councils, other
focus groups and individuals considered to
be key players. Currently they are seeking
funding to retain a community development
facilitator to help with the capacity building
that needs to go on, with individuals who
represent their communities on the
development association, with communities
they represent and with the association
themselves”. There will also be a process of
planning workshops on the island.
Points to ponder
A number of “points to ponder” are being
used to engage the key actors and others in
the planning process. They include:
• Do you think economic planning and the
development of Fogo Island is worth
pursuing?
• What areas of economic opportunity do
you think should be pursued?
• Should town councils be involved in
economic development planning?
• Do you agree with the Fogo Island
Development Association coordinating and
giving direction to the planning for
economic development for the island as a
whole?
• Do you think that communities can survive
on their own economically? or,
• Should they be integral parts of the larger
whole? Do you think that the economic
development of our diverse resources can
impact the out-migration we are currently
experiencing as a whole?
• If you think that economic development
can impact on the out-migration that we are
currently experiencing, as these facts
suggest, then how and to what extent are
you prepared to become involved in the
development and planning process?
Bernice Diamond, Acting Mayor, Change
Islands
How can we encourage people to be
involved in our communities?
There are many challenges and it is very
difficult to get people involved. There are
only five out of seven positions filled on
Council right now in Change Islands; three
are completely new and two have prior
experience. There is an extreme amount of
volunteer time required, “often with very
little thanks and a lot of criticism”. There
are many needs and very little funding.
Derm Flynn, Supervisor, Tourism and
Marketing, Town of Gander and Mayor of
Appleton
How do we support and maintain their
involvement given the tasks and
frustrations?
When Councils are elected it would be
very helpful if they could receive two or
three days of training on topics such as:
conduct of meetings, contacts for
accessing funds, and the ‘language’ of
applications. Face to face meetings of
council with people that they will be
working with from the Federation of
Municipalities or the Department of
Municipal Affairs would also be very
helpful.
How can we encourage people to get
involved?
It is important to find good people and
convince them to run for Mayor and Council
- don’t wait for someone to come forward. It
is important that we elect councils that have
vision, commitment and time to do the work.
That is not always easy – the pay is poor and
the hours are long. We should try to elect
people that will make decisions on behalf of
the community, and not on the basis of
individual agendas.
How can communities coordinate efforts
with other communities to achieve
common goals on a larger scale?
A meeting of communities within regions
needs to be held annually. We need to
educate our community leaders on what
attractions, trails, facilities, restaurants,
docking, etc. are available in each nearby
community. It would be useful to hire a
student to work on the ferry during the
tourist season. Training for this position
would be critical. “As a group of
communities from these islands as in
other regions of the Province, we have
many resources which we can access and
much more to offer if we work together”.
Recruit seniors – “they are the salt of the
earth, their roots are in the community and
they want to see the community survive”.
We need to instill pride in our communities.
Programs such as Tidy Towns, community
days and festivals are all ways to do this. This
will help communities survive.
How do we support and maintain their
involvement given the tasks and
frustrations?
Support the small businesses in the
community. If possible, give them a tax
break. They employ people and that helps
the community.
Find out about the government programs
that are in place and use them, but
recognize that you have to be the driving
force and the one coming up with the ideas.
If you do receive funding for a project, then
make the project a quality one. If possible,
hire a qualified, skilled project supervisor to
Municipalities do not have a lot of authority
but where possible it is important for local
government to encourage and work with the
entrepreneurs in their area to help them to
move forward quickly, instead of putting up
roadblocks.
57
guide progress on the project. Have a clear
goal for the project – “don’t do anything just
for the sake of doing it”.
The best programs are associated with
ACOA. More money should be provided to
ACOA and then targeted to helping
municipal governments do their job.
Similarly, there should be more programs in
the provincial government, in addition to the
regular infrastructure programs, to assist
municipal governments to do their job. It is
important however that municipalities raise
some of the funding, especially the seed
funding. “I always say get $10,000 seed
funding and the rest will follow”.
Municipalities do not have a lot of authority
but where possible it is important for local
government to encourage and work with the
entrepreneurs in their area to help them to
move forward quickly, instead of putting up
roadblocks.
How can communities coordinate efforts
with other communities to achieve common
goals on a larger scale?
It is important to cooperate with other
communities and develop a good working
relationship with other towns, especially
bigger ones that may have the resources
(e.g. information, a piece of equipment, or
directions on how to operate) that they
could share with you.
How can community structures be
modified/utilized to effect change?
The trend is towards development of
‘growth centres’. People can obtain
employment in these centres and commute
while still living in their own community.
It is important for communities to get together
and share success stories and also what works
and what doesn’t work when putting plans in
place, not just addressing questions about the
mechanism but also questions about access,
governance, and education.
58
There is a new federal program that will
assist municipalities with infrastructure. “This
money is coming directly from the federal
government to municipalities and it is
unencumbered money to be used for capital
works; every town will get some of that
money.”
“If all else fails be prepared to relocate. You
cannot just sit in the community, if you have
no source of income and no chance of
employment, and wait for something to
happen. I hate the fact of rural
communities losing people and shrinking,
and getting smaller and smaller, but in some
cases some communities are not going to
survive. That is the nature of things”.
Discussion
How can communities coordinate their
efforts with other communities?
“We have heard over the past two days a lot
of great ideas that have tremendous
potential to change what is going on in rural
communities in Newfoundland. … I would
like to see us resolve and put in place a
mechanism that will deliver on some of
those ideas and what I propose is that we
establish a community advocacy group”,
possibly the ‘Rural Newfoundland and
Labrador Community Advisory Group.
It was noted that the Federation of
Municipalities does provide some advocacy,
but not enough. “Weaker councils, those
with a lesser tax base, are not so wellorganized; it would be good to have
support coming from such an advocacy
group”.
For something like this, operating at the
‘middle scale’ you would probably need “at
least one highly energetic paid person who
could support that group and make sure the
meetings happened because you can’t do it
all on volunteer effort”.
It is important for communities to get
together and share success stories about
what works and what doesn’t work when
putting plans in place, not just addressing
questions about the mechanism but also
questions about access, governance, and
education.
Workshops like this where we transfer
information, share our concerns, and look
together for positive ways to move
forward are very helpful “because there is
a hopelessness that sets in when the
strategies that we have for coping with
the fisheries are no longer appropriate
and we now have to face new situations
for which we do not know how to
respond”. One way to arrest that
hopelessness is to do the kind of work
described by Steve Plante – capacity
building at all levels, individual,
community, institutions. It would be
helpful to have a community development
facilitator, someone who could help to
build that capacity.
An example of a community responding
to a crisis was what happened on Fogo
Island in the 1960s when there was a
feeling of hopelessness with regard to the
fishery. But then cooperatives were
developed and that was successful. The
dialogue leading up to this became the
‘Fogo process’ – “a way of coping, a way
for endangered coastal communities and
others to come to terms with their
problems … that Fogo process was used
throughout Newfoundland, in Appalachia,
and India with a great deal of success”.
Fogo is prepared to partner with Change
Islands. “The potential is there but there
are certain strategies and ingredients that
we have to use”.
How can community structures be
modified/utilized to effect change?
On growth centres
Concern was expressed about the
concept of growth centres. These centres
will only be there as long as there is
wealth in the rural communities.
the power structure.
We need to better understand the
relationships between larger and smaller
communities. The small centre benefits by
having an area where they can go to “buy a
car” and the larger centre benefits from the
rural surrounding area. It is important to
understand “where people will do things
and how we can support the small
communities and how they can access what
they need”.
“I am personally a strong supporter of
growth centres and service centres simply
because I am a rural community member
who is trying to attract labourers to come to
my community to work and they want
services. They want to go for coffee. They
are used to driving on the mainland. An hour
is nothing. They are commuters”.
Structure of government relevant to
communities
Governments have multiple departments
and agencies. In Norway there is one
government department that deals
specifically with maintaining northern
communities but there are other
departments that have overlapping interests.
One researcher in Norway is compiling a list
of all the policies and all the departments
with a view to mapping out which ones are
working at cross purposes with one another.
This could be done in Newfoundland. If
government departments are working at
cross purposes they should be challenged to
work together.
In response it was noted that this is in part
the role of the Rural Secretariat. Also, this
year the Federation of Municipalities will be
meeting in Gander and one of the topics put
forth for discussion at this meeting is “the
plight of small towns in Newfoundland and
Labrador”.
Steve Plante noted that this approach was
taken by the government of Quebec in
the 1970s. The result was that a lot of the
rural communities around the centres left
and things closed up. The problem is in
59
INSTITUTIONAL PERSPECTIVES
DIALOGUE CIRCLE
What changes are needed to make current management
institutions more responsive and effective?
How do institutions engage communities?
What does it take to get institutions to talk to one another?
How can we reconcile the diverse and conflicting interests for
sustainable development in rural communities?
What can government do with the revenue generated from
the oil and gas industry?
Who are institutions accountable to and how should they be
monitored and evaluated?
Definition of Institution
In the scholarly literature, the types of things
that are included as institutions are not only
the organizational structures such as
government but also other kinds of
organizations, rules and entitlements
including cultural rules, norms and
expectations – more informal rules that
guide our behaviour. For the purposes of
this discussion we will be including formal
organizations and informal expectations and
rules and norms. (Kelly Vodden)
Bill Grandy, Community Economic
Development Officer, Program
Development and Delivery, Atlantic Canada
Opportunities Agency, St. John’s, NL
How do institutions engage communities?
What is a partnership?
Often when people talk about partnering
with ACOA, they mean, “fund our program”.
But ACOA has more to offer in partnership.
For example, it is involved with many
community groups at many levels and has
access to a lot of information. Yet they are
often not included in the front end of
initiatives in the planning, design and
coordination and cooperation stages “even
in being able to share experiences and ideas
from across the province and other regions”.
We need to reflect on how we can
collaborate more effectively.
60
From the perspective of ACOA, engaging
communities is done through a process of
regional economic development. The
process takes a broad regional perspective
and it can coordinate the planning from the
regional level, from which it engages
community participation. “We deal directly
with communities and community-based
organizations but when it comes to the
planning of what we are going to do, how
we are going to approach it, who is going to
coordinate it, we use the regional economic
development board process”.
How can we reconcile the diverse and
conflicting interests for sustainable
development in rural communities?
Often communities and community groups
do not get along. It is difficult for ACOA to
get involved when there is not a clear
consensus from the community perspective
on the goals of the project. “There is no
added value to being in the middle of
conflict. … If there is strong cohesion within
a community and a strong plan that the
government can follow, then we will come in
and support the program, but we will not
usually get into the middle and tell
communities what to do and what is good
for them”.
What changes are needed to make current
management institutions more responsive
and effective?
If we are going to make a difference, we
have to talk about the community “as a
whole”. The fishery is important but it is only
part of the community. We tend to think and
operate in ‘silos’ – that is how we are
structured. In our planning we need to
reflect more on how we can integrate all the
resources in a community. We also need to
concentrate more on what we ‘can’ do,
instead of what we ‘can’t’ do. And
communities need to take the time to “talk
about their ideas and try to dream a bit
about what they could have and see where
that takes them”. Centreville is a very good
example of what can be accomplished when
people get together and think ‘out of the
norm’. “How are they doing that? They are
probably supporting one another. That
where it has to start”.
In our planning we need to
reflect more on how we can
integrate all the resources in a
community. We also need to
concentrate more on what we
‘can’ do, instead of what we
‘can’t’ do. And communities
need to take the time to “talk
about their ideas and try to
dream a bit about what they
could have and see where that
takes them”
Kevin Anderson, Staff Officer, Regional
Treaty Negotiations and Implementation,
Resource Management Division,
Fisheries and Oceans Canada
How do institutions engage
communities?
In Newfoundland and Labrador, DFO’s
tradition of engaging communities can be
looked at in three phases. In the historical
context they operated a system largely as
fisheries officers. The department was and
still is highly decentralized with 42 offices
in Newfoundland and Labrador. A more
contemporary model is built on relating
to other institutions where they rely on
the institutional capacity of fishing unions,
processor organizations, and other
emerging organizations around the
recreational fisheries and also rely on their
instruments. For example, it is not
unusual in most commercial fisheries for
unions to organize committees of local
fishers and representatives, in some cases
of all the communities in a given area, but
not necessarily to bring their views, to
formal consultation processes that have
been built around the development of
management plans or the many working
groups the department has set up with
individual groups of fishers to address
their local issues or more broad-based
issues. The third phase is futuristic and
relates to the Oceans Act. The department’s
role in the Oceans Program is shaping the
way the department interacts with the
community, the role that the NGOs are
beginning to play, and the role that nonfishing interests are beginning to play.
On institution and capacity
“The capacity of the Department of Fisheries
and Oceans to engage small communities is
just as big an issue as the capacity of small
communities to engage the Department of
Fisheries and Oceans”. The DFO at one time
was a highly centralized structure with a large
bureaucracy. The mind set, training and
means to engage communities don’t usually
emanate from this type of organization and,
in fact, the organization that needs to
engage small communities may be a
different part of the training program for the
‘bureaucrats’. Similarly, as we have noted,
small communities need to build capacity to
engage with the DFO.
In the interaction with small communities,
the issue of ‘legitimacy’ comes up. Who are
you talking to, who do they represent, and
do they adequately represent who they say
they are representing? This is a very difficult
challenge when you are dealing with
multiple stakeholders with multiple interests
and when people are largely volunteers. It is
61
The most important challenge they have is that
they don’t know who to engage with. They
have ideas about what to do that would give
rise to sustainable economic development but
they need to step back and say ‘what are we
trying to do’?
important to establish the ‘legitimacy’ – that
those people you are talking to are
recognized by the people they represent as
being their true representatives.
A special case: the Aboriginal community in
Newfoundland and Labrador
The new settlement in northern Labrador,
Nunatsiavut, the land area for the Labrador
Inuit, has a science body that is the primary
recommending body to the Minister of
Fisheries and Oceans for science in that
area. The aboriginal policy instrument is
well-defined emanating from the
comprehensive land claims policy, and the
Aboriginal Fishery Strategy with Fisheries
and Oceans that has clear objectives,
communal not individual. These are
elements that may not be transferable,
especially issues around rights, but
nevertheless may be useful if you take the
rights based instruments away and examine
the model. “Is it applicable? Maybe not, but
maybe some elements are. I point you in
that direction as a place to look for possible
models of community decision-making and
the communal nature of decision–making”.
Zita Cobb, Frangipani Foundation, Fogo
Island, NL
“I am from Fogo Island but my professional
experience is in the corporate world. Since
leaving the corporate world I am now in the
role of investor and philanthropist. Initially
we started an education project on Fogo
and in that project the actors and institutions
involved were clear. We also run projects in
Africa and oddly there are similarities
between Fogo and Africa in terms of
62
development. Last year we decided to
switch our focus to economic development
in Fogo Islands.”
How do institutions engage communities?
The most important challenge they have is
that they don’t know who to engage with.
They have ideas about what to do that
would give rise to sustainable economic
development but they need to step back
and say ‘what are we trying to do’? Only the
community leaders can lead that process
because they are the people who know
where they came from and who they are.
You cannot figure out where you are going
unless those are your reference points.
From that you can build on a dream and
answer the questions about where you want
to be ten years or twenty years from now.
“If there is anything I have learned from the
corporate world, and I think it applies
everywhere, it is that power is never given, it
is taken. Communities need to take the
power”.
Definition of community
The most important point is how you define
‘community’. You cannot have a community
of 200 people. “I would speculate that there
is no way the 650 or so small fishing
communities that we have left are going to
survive. … clearly if we are going to save
who we are, who we were, build it into
something else in an intelligent way, we
need to pull together”. For example, one
feasible size of community could be the
communities of Notre Dame Bay.
Accountability
“We can make a plan, we can have
strategies and goals and tactics but we must
not forget the deliverables and if we are
going to lead, we have to hold ourselves
accountable and if we are going to be held
accountable then we have to measure our
success”. We need to decide in advance
how we are going to measure success. And
we need to have another plan – the key
thing about this is that it gives us a forum for
continuous discussion and debate. We
cannot build in an ad hoc way because we
are not building on dialogue. We don’t
have a disciplined repeatable place where
people understand how to interact with
each other - having a plan gives us that.
We also need to recognize that once we
start into the process this is an
entrepreneurial goal and that may mean
that we are going after opportunities and
today we may not have the resources to
get there. “There is no overnight success
so you just have to be relentless and
embrace the fact that we don’t have it yet
but we are going to press on and get
there”.
What changes are needed to make
current management institutions more
responsive and effective?
Communities need to organize
themselves and work together. Then they
can tell governments what they want from
them. “I am a fairly corporate savy person
and I can still not figure it all out - what is
available federally, provincially and
municipally and what fits where”. In the
corporate world one way to address this is
to appoint a senior empowered liaison
officer who works for the ‘community’ and
that person’s job is to go get what is
needed. In this case the customer would
be the community.
Communities need to take control of the
agenda, be creative and disciplined about
it and be accountable and most
importantly they must be the caretakers of
the vision.
Governments need to be strategic and
explicit about their strategies for rural
Newfoundland and Labrador. Then they
need to invest in whatever infrastructures
come out of these planning processes and
they have to “stop chasing papers in the
wind”. There are a whole lot of agencies
and staff that can be realigned around the
plan but the focus should be the plan and
that should drive out the actions. “As my
old boss used to say, the cost of failure is
not just the absence of success”.
WHAT CAN GOVERNMENT DO WITH THE REVENUE GENERATED FROM
THE OIL AND GAS INDUSTRY?
Norway is a good example of how to use the revenue in a very positive
way. The Norwegian government is committed to use some of their oil
revenue to stabilize and to have a transition from what is going on now
to what they think the future of the fishing industry will be in northern
part of the country in the future. They did not want all the people
leaving these communities and moving into the cities. They wanted to
have a settlement pattern, recognizing that not all communities will
survive and that change is constant but they wanted to do something
deliberately to deal with that transition.
The Shetland Islands has a population of 25,000 and the economy has
traditionally been based on fish and sheep. They have had a big oil
boom for the last thirty years. They have built up a community fund, a
multi-million dollar fund, from the revenues of the oil and gas industry, so
that they are positioned now to deal with their future as the oil and gas
resources are declining. “The goal is that when the last tanker load
moves out the sheep will go back to where they were in the beginning”.
Newfoundland and Labrador should have something like that. How
could it happen? The government will have to do this in their
negotiations with the oil and gas industry. “If you were to ask me what I
would do, I would take the six per cent share of Hibernia that the
Government of Canada owns at the moment and I would use that money
to deal with the transition that is going on in Newfoundland and
Labrador. That is Newfoundland and Labrador money. It was an
investment made by the Government of Canada, all of which has been
recovered by the Government of Canada”. This money is currently
being used for general revenue but the government could do something
very innovative with the revenue from Hibernia that would help with this
transition into the 21st Century.
David Thomson commented that all over the world there are examples
of using resources and siphoning off of income that should be going to
adjacent communities, whether it is oil and gas or fisheries. “Shetland
made a brilliant move early on before there was a single gallon of oil
pumped out of the ocean. They employed a young local government
executive who had the vision. He got the whole community of Shetland
behind him because it was a high risk venture. He took on the oil
companies head up and insisted on the 7% benefit for the local
community and that installation be built in a way that would not be
detrimental to the environment. At first the companies thought it not
possible but Shetland stood its ground. Eventually every oil company
agreed to their terms and that is why Shetland Islands has this fund.
People have to be tough, they have to have leadership and integrity”.
63
“How you get that culture change at a federal
and provincial level and get them talking
together in a way that will be beneficial, is a
very big question”.
Gordon Slade, Executive Director, Once
Ocean, St. John’s,NL
What changes are needed to make current
management institutions more responsive
and effective?
On the federal side if we are ever going to
get change, departments (ACOA, Service
Canada, DFO, Industry Canada) are going to
have to work together. One of the ways the
departments are going to be held
accountable is in terms of how well they
structure their programs to assist with the
problems. That hasn’t happened. “When I
was Vice President of ACOA many times we
found we were working at cross purposes in
the same jurisdiction with other government
departments. We have to deliver that
message and we have to fix that”. If these
are the departments responsible for
assisting in the adjustment from the 20th
Century to the 21st Century for these fisherybased communities then they have to look
at their programs and make them more
relevant for dealing with the problem. “All of
you know that when you try to do something
here you are trying many times to fit a
program into something that isn’t really
suited to fit what it is you are trying to do”.
“There is a lot of support if you can convince
the powers that be to give you money to
build on plans but very little support to do
the transition – to go from the start to where
you want to go”.
What does it take to get institutions to talk
to each other?
This is a culture change where we are all
working towards the same vision – it can’t
stay the way it is now. “How you get that
culture change at a federal and provincial
level and get them talking together in a way
that will be beneficial, is a very big
question”.
64
Community Development is the challenge
of each community not the government
“Developing Change Islands is not the
government’s problem; it is the problem of
Change Islands or of Fogo Island. The
government did many things over the last
fifty years which when we look back now,
were not the right things to do. That is
history now. This problem here is a problem
of Change Islands and Change Islanders are
going to have to solve it. When you are
ready, you go to government with what you
want from government. Don’t go to
government and say ‘you deal with this
problem’. It is better to develop the vision
and the plan and get people working
together and then say ‘we have something
to present to you as to how we are going to
deal with this transition and here is how you
can help us’”.
Discussion
What changes are needed to make current
management institutions more responsive
and effective?
Government needs to govern people, not
fish or crab or money. They have an
obligation to offer governance to people.
“As a public servant, I have an obligation to
understand the dynamics in the community
that I am dealing with … and I have an
obligation to understand why there is
conflict in rural Newfoundland”. Should
institutions be involved in processes where
there is conflict? There were differing points
of view on this question: they should
understand the dynamics but not impose
solutions on communities; or, they should
play a role in facilitation and put it on the
“Based on my experience the
most successful engagement
process has been with the home
grown community leaders”.
table and ask, for example, Why won’t you
people come together? “We are too
afraid of the answer and we are too afraid
of the argument”.
Government departments may have
biologists, statisticians, technologists,
MBAs and economists, but do they have
people that understand communities? If
governments really want to engage
communities, then they need to hire
people with those skill sets.
“Based on my experience the most
successful engagement process has been
with the home grown community
leaders”. In terms of the ‘middle ground’,
there is the opportunity for institutional
exchange of information and
understanding through professional
relationship building – there is a focal
point, frequent interactions and you can
learn from each other.
“I think it is important that we quantify the
problem more than we have. If we look
specifically at Change Islands we should ask
‘what is the problem’ and ‘what could you do
today’. If you took the actual work force that
exists here now and you could find 80%
employment for that work force in Change
Islands doing any kind of meaningful longterm work, would that be sufficient for
Change Islands?” For example, if there was
work created for the 15 -18 men that have
left Change Islands to work in Northern
Alberta for four weeks, would that solve the
problem?
65
WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?
SUGGESTIONS FOR ACTION
Following the dialogue circles participants broke into small groups to focus on the issue of ‘Where do we go
from here? Suggestions for action’. The breakout groups included people at the workshop, from outside the
community and a number of community members. There were many ideas and suggestions put forward. We
have included them here in point form. There are also numerous ideas described throughout the dialogue that
are not included here.
Innovative institutions
Set up a new organization to address the problem in rural communities: the Rural Newfoundland and Labrador
CAN – an advocacy group
Set up a neutral research institute (in cooperation with universities) to discuss issues and challenges in rural
areas. This institute should address the question: What are the requirements? (scientific, business, and
community capacity requirements).
Organize rural exchanges for success stories – do this through an organization, possibly the advocacy group.
“There are indeed success stories all around Newfoundland and Labrador where the government has been
engaged with the local community with some expertise and direction and was able to put something together
for the community that was meaningful, had a vision, and was long term, and it worked”. We need to look at
these examples and learn.
We need some kind of forum or research institute or group that will gather these examples, lessons learned
and get them out to people
Education programs
Put in place an education program that would educate people in the urban sectors about their connectivity to
rural areas and especially the role of coastal communities in providing and maintaining different services on
which urban areas are dependent.
Start an education program about rural living and link with exchanges; for example, a Canadian rural and urban
children exchange program.
Start a program to encourage leadership and entrepreneurial spirit in the community – it could include
leadership training, training for town council members, where to get help, possibly financial help, how to write
proposals, sharing information, etc. It would need an information and support mechanism.
Put in place a program that considers some kind of payment for ecosystem services (similar to the program
described for Costa Rica); “When primary producers, fishermen and farmers, experience implementation of
policies that cause them to produce less and make less money they should be compensated for their role in
maintaining the ecosystem structure”.
Tourism programs
Build a cultural marine trail for hiking that would operate for 8 to 12 months per year on Change Islands and
another one on Fogo Island. Winter sports should be included as well. This will create long-term jobs.
There could be tourism programs built around arts, music, crafts and traditional industry and culture (similar to
the program described for Costa Rica).
Have a challenge – a race in a hand-powered boat – first create the boat (an art in itself). It could be a wooden
boat festival, or a fisheries festival “It doesn’t always have to be big things or business - just get people working
together”.
Develop tourism around ‘schooners’ or cod-based tourism – using the example from Costa Rica and tourism
developed around coffee farms. This might attract a different kind of clientele; for example, those who watch
Discovery Channel, who might “want to get out on the boat and go on the rough seas and pull in a fish.”
Expand the new program that has been started on Fogo Island teaching kids how to build punts. This could be
leveraged into a business that could tie into a business for the whole coast. “We are commissioning a punt
from every single master builder that is left on the island.”
66
Create new ideas for business and implement them
“Set up a company with delegates from Fogo, Twillingate and Change Islands and do some
‘experimental’ business” “Maybe with capital of under $100,000 buy a bunch of squid, or try to, freeze it
and sell it back as bait or to the mink farmers as feed because over the years a lot of the food for animals
is imported. I am suggesting that the best way of learning is by doing. Do the things and find out what is
stopping you from taking control your local economy”. (But in Fogo there is a plant that takes squid and
herring and mackerel and capelin and freezes it).
Newfoundland is not sufficient in bait – it has to be imported. Can this be used for bait, for mink farmers?
What about the offal that is being dumped out at sea? Could that be used?
Is this a cooperative business opportunity?
Need to find out: What mechanisms do you need to establish a business in rural communities? What are
the factors you need to take into consideration to open up a business in a rural community so that it
becomes as workable business? Is there any small-scale help for businesses in rural communities?
Provide assistance by placing college people out of school in local firms.
Look at options for value-added businesses; for example, start a local business that will produce and
export fish cakes.
Find people who have left Newfoundland and now live in other parts of Canada and find ways to keep
them involved. They may be in a position to help.
Get people in high school involved in the planning, now. Jobs need to be created but they have to be
full-time jobs that these people want to come back to.
Identify the kind of jobs that you could have that are not vocation-based. Some small businesses can be
based anywhere; e.g., in Nova Scotia, translation services and computer companies with software
development.
Process
Creating excitement and enthusiasm around the potential for business opportunities is good. But you
need to go back to the basics of what the issues are. What is the governance capacity? This is a critical
need and can be answered in the short term. It also needs to be answered at different scales. “This kind
of thinking and work needs to be done in tandem with the ‘what can we do to bring in business’ work”.
You also need longer-term planning and capacity building. At what scale? Perhaps Change Islands and
Fogo Island and maybe a bit more; not all Newfoundland and Labrador and not just Change Islands.
We also need to know about the failures and what could happen if you don’t take some things into
account.
You learn by doing. We need to draw some conclusions about what is to be learned from all these things
that have happened.
We need to build into our plan considerations of change; e.g., climate change.
67
LIST OF PARTICIPANTS
Sharmane Allen, Economic Analyst, Policy and
Economic Analysis Division, Fisheries and Oceans
Canada, St. John’s, NL
Kevin Anderson, Staff Officer, Regional Treaty
Negotiations and Implementation, Resource
Management Division, Fisheries and Oceans
Canada, St. John’s, NL
Antonio Arreaga-Valdes, Consul General
A.H.,Consulado General de Costa Rica, North
Vancouver, BC
Krista Baker, PhD Candidate, Memorial University
of Newfoundland, St. John’s, NL
Jill Bennett, Executive Director, Kittiwake
Economic Development Corporation, Gander, NL
Herbert Bown, President, Stages and Stores
Heritage Foundation, Change Islands, NL
Wallace Bown, General Manager, Stages and
Stores Inc., Change Islands, NL
Ian Fleming, Director, Ocean Sciences Centre,
Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John’s,
NL
Derm Flynn, Supervisor, Tourism and Marketing,
Town of Gander, Gander, NL
Patricia Gallaugher, Director, Centre for Coastal
Studies and Continuing Studies in Science,
Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC
Terry Glavin, Fisheries Writer and Researcher,
Marine Conservation Advisor, Sierra Club of
Canada, BC Chapter, Mayne Island, BC
Bill Grandy, Community Economic Development
Officer, Program Development and Delivery,
Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency (ACOA),
St. John’s , NL
William Broderick, Director, Inshore Sector, Fish
Food & Allied Workers Union, St. John’s, NL
Rob Greenwood, Director, The Leslie Harris
Centre of Regional Policy and Development,
Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John’s,
NL
Derek Butler, Executive Director, Seafood
Producers Association, St. John’s, NL
The Honourable Loyola Hearn, Minister ,
Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Ottawa, ON
Andrea Carew, Senior Manager, Atlantic Marine
Conservation, WWF Canada, Halifax, NS
Arlo Hemphill, Director, Global Marine
Strategies, Conservation International,
Washington, DC
Zita Cobb, Frangipani Foundation, Toronto, ON
Anthony Cobb, Frangipani Foundation, Toronto,
ON
Freeman Compton, Chairperson, Fogo Island
Development Association, Joe Batt’s Arm, NL
Cyr Couturier, President, Newfoundland
Aquaculture Industry Association, and Chair,
Aquaculture Programs, Marine Institute, St.
John’s, NL
Mark Jones, Sociology and Anthropology,
Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John’s,
NL
Juanita Keel-Ryan, Tourism Planning and
Research Division, NL Tourism, Culture and
Recreation, St. John’s, NL
Greg MacLeod, Director, Tompkins Institute for
Human Values and Technology, Cape Breton
University, Sydney, NS
Ben Davis, Acting Division Manager,
Environmental Sciences Division, Fisheries and
Oceans Canada, St. John’s, NL
Shane Mahoney, Executive Director, Science
Division - St. John’s Area Wildlife, NL Dept. of
Environment and Conservation, St. John’s, NL
Nadine Decker, Community Representative
Gerrard McKenna, Regional Council, Fogo
Island, NL
Bernice Diamond, Acting Mayor, Change Islands,
Change Islands, NL
Alison Earle, Assistant Deputy Minister, Rural
Secretariat, Government of Newfoundland and
Labrador, NL
George Feltham, Co-Chair, Eastport Peninsula
Lobster Protection Committee, Eastport, NL
68
Winston Fiander, Community Development
Volunteer, St. Philip’s, NL
Brian Meaney, Assistant Deputy Minister ,
Aquacultlure, NL Dept. of Fisheries and
Aquaculture, St. John’s, NL
Debbie Neil, Development Researcher, Town of
Tilting, Tilting, NL
Barb Neis, Professor, Sociology, Memorial
University of Newfoundland, St. John’s, NL
Sue Nichols, Professor, Dept. of Geodesy and
Geomatics Engineering, University of New
Brunswick, Fredericton, NB
Shane Noble, New Wood Manufacturers Inc.,
Centreville, NL
Andrea Nolan, Communications/Research
Assistant, Provincial Development Plan,
Government of Newfoundland and Labrador,
St. John’s, NL
Steve Olsen, Director, Coastal Resources
Center, University of Rhode Island,
Narragansett, RI, USA
Shirley Osmond, Regional Clerk, Fogo Island
Regional Council, Joe Batt’s Arm, NL
Todd Wight, Executive Director, Newfoundland &
Labrador Outfitters Association, Deer Lake, NL
Mervin Wiseman, President, Newfoundland and
Labrador Fur Breeders’ Association, North
Harbour, NL
Laurie Wood, Coordinator, Centre for Coastal
Studies and, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC
Maureen Woodrow, Executive Director Network
Secretariat, Oceans Management Research
Network, c/o School of Management, University
of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON
Joe Wroblewski, Professor, Ocean Sciences
Centre , Memorial University of Newfoundland,
St. John’s , NL
Geoff Perry, Regional Aquaculture Coordinator,
Planning and Coordination Division, Fisheries
and Oceans Canada, St. John’s, NL
Steve Plante, Professor, Social Sciences,
University of Quebec at Rimouski, Rimouski,
PQ
Gerry Reid, Government of Newfoundland and
Labrador,
The Honourable Tom Rideout, Minister of
Fisheries and Aquaculture, Government of
Newfoundland and Labrador, St. John’s, NL
Gordon Slade, Executive Director, One Ocean,
St. John’s, NL
Beverley Stevens, Change Islands Pony
Refuge, Change Islands, NL
David Thomson, Fisheries Consultant,
Morayshire, Scotland
Paul Torraville, Member, Board of Directors,
Fogo Island Co-op, Fogo Island, NL
Anne Troake, Choreographer and Filmmaker
David Vardy, Director, Public Policy and
Research Centre, Memorial University of
Newfoundland, St. John’s, NL
Kelly Vodden, PhD Candidate, Department of
Geography, Simon Fraser University,
Centreville, NL
Lorn Wheeler, Senior Policy Advisor, Fisheries
and Oceans Canada, Ottawa, ON
John Wickham, Director, Regional Economic
Development, NL Dept of Innovation, Trade
and Rural Development, St. John’s , NL
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The Centre for Coastal Studies, within the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences,
at Simon Fraser University, promotes interdisciplinary research, education and
dialogue on Canada’s coastal ecosystems, particularly those in British Columbia.
For more information about the Centre for Coastal Studies please visit
www.sfu.ca/coastalstudies