NDP Releases Fisheries Platform

The leader of the province’s New Democrats, Lorraine Michael (MHA, Signal Hill-Quidi Vidi), today released some key points of the party’s 2011 Fisheries platform accompanied by Marystown fish plant workers.

“I am happy to be here today with people who work in the fishing industry,” says Michael.
Michael notes the province’s New Democrats will make investing in coastal communities a priority. A key example of this would be government assisting plant workers in Marystown, who face reduced employment. Michael says government must immediately reopen the plant while the audit is going on, giving workers more employment.

“We believe government has a responsibility to get involved in the situation with the Marystown fish plants,” says Michael.

Michael says Marystown is a prime example of how the current government has turned its back on the fishery.
In addition to demanding the immediate reopening of the plant, today the NDP is calling for the redirection of traditional Job Creation Partnership-type programs into the plant to ensure long term employment for fish plant workers. This would be a reinvestment back into the industry and would support what people are trained to do.

Michael also noted that since the plant is currently closed, the redfish concession given to OCI, which was agreed to by plant workers in order keep the plant open, should be revoked until the plant is reopened.

“The fishing industry created and nurtured Newfoundland and Labrador for centuries,” says Michael. “It has been allowed by successive provincial and federal governments to deteriorate over the years. This decline impacts especially the people who live in our rural communities.”

The NDP fisheries platform will offer practical, responsible solutions to rebuilding and re-energizing this vital resource. It makes sense to invest in this industry for so many reasons – employment, food security, and environmental stewardship among them.

“In life after oil, if we don’t invest now in renewable fisheries for the future, we will have nothing,” says Michael.