P.E.I. lobster levy delayed for one year
The lobster levy that the Prince Edward Island Fishermen's Association hoped to be in place this year has been delayed until spring 2016.
The delay came after the association met with provincial fisheries minister Alan McIsaac on May 29 to discuss the levy. They hoped to move forward with the formation of a lobster commodity board under the Natural Products Marketing Act.
MacPherson said the timeline is too tight for a levy to be in place for the end of this season.
"He walked us through in terms of what could happen on the legislative side and we did caucus with our executive and taking these various factors into consideration, the decision was made to get everything in place structurally for this year but that it made sense to start the collection period for both the harvester and the processor levy in the spring of 2016," said MacPherson.
Meetings will be held with the onshore buyers group after the spring 2015 season to discuss the process outlined in the lobster regulations. The levy will be collected from the harvesters and onshore buyers at the same time.