The president of Saskatchewan’s commercial fisheries cooperative says provincial funding cuts are seriously affecting the organization.

The Saskatchewan Cooperative Fisheries Limited held its annual general meeting in Prince Albert Monday.

President Marie Hildebrandt says the organization used to get about $50,000 a year from the provincial government to cover travel and other costs of hosting the meeting but this is no longer the case.

“We had a lot of lack of funding this year,” she says. “So, our meeting ended up to be smaller than what we expected because a lot of the fisherman couldn’t afford to come to the meeting.”

Hildebrandt says numbers were down by about 70 at this year’s meeting.

She says, fortunately, both the Prince Albert Grand Council and Métis Nation-Saskatchewan stepped in to cover some of the costs.

(PHOTO: Members of the Saskatchewan Cooperative Fisheries Limited at the annual general meeting in Prince Albert on Nov. 19. Photo by Fraser Needham)