On the first day of lobster fishing in Chéticamp, CHNE interviewed the president of the Gulf Nova Scotia Fishermen’s, Leonard LeBlanc, to get his reaction on the new financial package for fish harvesters. 

The $469.4 million package announced on Thursday has three sections. Perhaps the most important one, according do the Coalition, is a change to Employment Insurance (EI) eligibility. The government will allow self-employed fish harvesters and crewmembers to access EI benefits even if they don’t get enough insurable hours this season. The benefits will be given based on insurable earnings from previous years. “[It] was our main fear out of the whole thing,” LeBlanc said, “because [fishers] are not going to have enough hours, so I think that’s taken care of.”

Still, the program will not be covering everybody. “There are issues with new guys who bought gear and don’t have a history in the fishery,” LeBlanc said. “So, we’re going to have to deal with that. Also, new crew members who don’t have a history will have to qualify.”

A factor that remains to be seen, whether fishers with underlying health conditions will have access to EI if they decide to stay home this season. “That’s probably one of the first questions that we asked because of COVID and this is all because of COVID-19. So, you’d think that would fit into this requirement but that’s yet to be determined,” LeBlanc said. “Monday, we start knocking on doors again to get clarification on some of this stuff.”

The association is happy with the next part of the package, the Fish Harvester Benefit. The program aims to help self-employed fishers who cannot access the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy. It’s particularly important for business owners employing family members, a practice that's not covered by the subsidy but that's common in the sector. People who’ve lost at least 25 per cent of their income will be eligible, and they can get up to $847 per week for up to 12 weeks.

Lastly, the Fish Harvester Grant offers up to $10,000 in non-repayable grants to self-employed harvesters impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. The program is designed for those who are ineligible for the Canada Emergency Business Account or equivalent measures. The size of the grant will vary depending on the level of the fisher’s revenue from past seasons. “Basically, they are all going to qualify because they lost two weeks of fishing already,” LeBlanc said. “That’s a 25% loss already, so it’s more or less a given.”

The association said it will continue working with the federal government to iron out remaining issues. “I think they left the door open for further discussion. … I don’t think they have all the details written out yet,” LeBlanc said. “Overall, if you add what we got as harvesters plus the processors, it’s over half a billion dollars. That’s the most that the federal government ever invested in the fisheries, so that’s quite the task that we’ve achieved.”