N.L. fish harvesters reach deal, ending demonstration that shut down government

ST. JOHN’S, N.L. — A fisherman who led protests this week that shut down the Newfoundland and Labrador legislature says he has reached a deal with the government to make it easier for harvesters to earn a living.

John Efford will drive home to Port de Grave, N.L., after spending three days with a crowd of fishers outside the provincial government building demanding what they called “free enterprise” in the fishery.

“I’m feeling great,” Efford said in an interview Friday. “This is a step towards fixing things.”

“Free enterprise, he added. “We have it.”

Fishers staged protests for about three weeks at the legislature in St. John’s, calling on the government to ease regulations and let them sell their catch to companies outside the province, among other demands. The fishers complained that the small group of buyers in the province were acting as a cartel and pushing down prices.

Demonstrations intensified Wednesday morning when more than 100 harvesters blocked government officials from entering the building to deliver the Liberals’ budget.

Two Royal Newfoundland Constabulary members on horseback rode into the crowd to break it up, but the harvesters stood their ground, and the officers ultimately steered the animals away. A fisherman and a police officer were carried away from the scene on stretchers, and the government had to delay the budget presentation by a day.

The crowd assembled again on Thursday morning and were met this time by a line of police in riot gear.

On Friday they gathered farther away, in a parking lot across the legislature. The relocation was a condition on which Fisheries Minister Elvis Loveless agreed to meet with Efford, the harvester told the crowd that morning. Greg Pretty and Jason Spingle, executives with the inshore fishers’ union, were also part of the discussion.

As a result of the talks, the government agreed to allow “outside buyers,” including seafood processors in other jurisdictions, to apply to buy fish caught in Newfoundland and Labrador, Efford said.

The province also agreed to measures Efford said could create more competition among processors.

“Not just for fishermen, it will make a big, massive difference for Newfoundland,” he said. 

The fisheries are a key economic driver in rural parts of the province, and many fishers this week said they were fighting for their communities as much as their livelihoods. 

In a news release Friday, the Fish, Food and Allied Workers Union called the deal a victory that will improve market access for harvesters. It said the government agreed to allow fishers to sell their catch to buyers from outside the province, a key demand.

Loveless issued a release lauding “a productive meeting that has led to positive outcomes.”

“We all share the same goal of seeing an organized start to the 2024 fishing season,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Association of Seafood Producers on Thursday accused the protesters of spreading “propaganda and misinformation.”

The association said the demand by harvesters that government grant buying licences to new companies would have “detrimental impacts on the local seafood processing sector, and the people of Newfoundland and Labrador.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 22, 2024.

Sarah Smellie, The Canadian Press