Another Year with FFMC

Another Year with FFMC

Tuesday, March 22, 2011 at 13:56

 

 

A fisherman from Cumberland House says he’s disappointed to hear that fishers won’t be able to get out from under the Freshwater Fish Marketing Corporation’s monopoly – for another year.

 

John Carriere says he’s waited 11 years for the monopoly to break and thought 2011 would be the year.

 

Yesterday, the government announced it was delaying the departure until April of 2012.

 

Minister responsible Ken Cheveldayoff says the move was made at the request of the fishermen.

 

He also said he believed the delay would give fishers more time to try and set up an alternative marketing system for themselves.

 

Carriere says he understands the situation, but it’s still tough to swallow.

 

Carriere notes there is a provincial election in the fall.

 

He hopes the activity surrounding the vote will help jostle some action for the fishers.

 

Meanwhile, the President of CEO of FFMC says he isn’t surprised that the province has delayed pulling out of the freshwater fish marketing agreement.

 

John Wood doesn’t think all Saskatchewan fishers want to pull out of selling to FFMC, and he says the corporation will be happy to purchase fish from this province for the next year.

 

Wood says FFMC had a plan in place in case the pull-out had taken place, but he says nothing was physically done because FFMC hadn’t been given notice it would actually happen this year.

 

He says the extra year gives the corporation more time to plan in case the pull out does take place in 2012 as the government has indicated.