Ottawa still hasn't learned to choose science over politics in the cod fishery, says Gerry Byrne

Newfoundland and Labrador's fisheries minister says he was disturbed to learn federal Fisheries Minister Diane Lebouthillier ignored the advice of staff in reopening the commercial cod fishery.

Gerry Byrne said Tuesday the decision to reopen the fishery, announced in June, wasn't based on industry science.

"The view that we saw was very, very disturbing. It is about politics," Byrne said Tuesday. "We thought we were at a place where politics would be removed from this decision-making process, because it was politics that brought us here to begin with."

Byrne said it shows Ottawa's lack of understanding of the industry and the province.

"This is, I think, the worst-case scenario that we could ever imagine. Because it tells us, it informs us that there have been zero, no lessons learned whatsoever."

A May 9 briefing note prepared for the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans recommended maintaining the cod moratorium, which had been in place since 1992, based on scientific evidence.

But the briefing note also suggested reopening the fishery and increasing quotas would be "politically a victory," and in June the federal government did just that, increasing the total allowable catch from 13,000 to 18,000 tonnes.

Byrne called the findings a gut punch to those working in the industry and the people of Newfoundland and Labrador.

"We have endured three decades of a moratorium, of a collapse of this resource, and we endured it by hope. We endured it by discipline. By responding to the needs of the resource," he said.

"What this tells me is that the government, the minister and all those around the minister, including the members of Parliament from Newfoundland and Labrador, really do not understand us."

WATCH | Gerry Byrne says Ottawa hasn't learned its fisheries lesson from 1992:

Reopening of cod fishery shows Ottawa ‘really doesn't understand us’: Gerry Byrne

3 months ago

Duration 0:48

Provincial Fisheries Minister Gerry Byrne tells CBC/Radio-Canada he was disgusted and disturbed to learn of Diane Lebouthillier's decision to score a political victory in ending the northern cod moratorium, and says the only way the fishery would be properly managed is jointly between Newfoundland and Labrador and Ottawa.

 Byrne criticized Lebouthillier's decision to allow offshore boats back into the cod fishery, which he said killed the fishery in the first place.

"The only way this fishery will be managed correctly is if there is joint management with Newfoundland and Labrador," he said.

Speaking at the national Liberal caucus retreat in British Columbia, Lebouthillier said she will always make decisions with science and industry input in mind.

"I will always make decisions that protect the resource for future generations, with the advice of scientists but also people from the fishing industry, from people on the water. We mix all that together to get the best decision possible," she said in French.

If we're not going to make decisions based on evidence, based on science, then why are we making them?- Tony Wakeham

N.L. PC Opposition leader Tony Wakeham said the federal government's decision put politics over people.

"If we're not going to make decisions based on evidence, based on science, then why are we making them?" he said. "That's just not good enough for the people of Newfoundland and Labrador. And that's why it has to stop."

Wakeham said Premier Andrew Furey and the provincial government didn't do enough to stand up for the industry.

The province had a chance to provide input when the federal government asked for it in April, he said, but no recommendation was provided.

Furey initially celebrated the end of the moratorium in a June 26 post on social media, but then sent a letter to Lebouthillier a week later calling the changes an "affront," adding the province needed to have direct say over its own resources.

In a statement, the federal NDP called the decision to reopen the fishery against recommendations a "deceitful betrayal."

"This decision has the potential to hurt fishery workers, and communities in Newfoundland and Labrador for generations to come. Instead of supporting these workers, and listening to sound advice from the experts and locals, the Liberals once again are beholden to large corporate interests, just like the Conservatives were before them," the statement said.

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