Lobster fishermen leave Port Medway early on a November morning to set their traps. (Rick Conrad)

The Canada-China trade deal may be only a few days old, but it’s already having an effect on what lobster fishermen are getting for their catch, according to South Shore-St. Margarets MP Jessica Fancy.

“I’ve been talking to some of the executive directors for some of the different lobster associations in the area and they’re saying as quick as (Sunday), the price has been starting to go up. So they’re seeing this as a huge win.”

The Liberal politician spoke to QCCR on Monday about what the deal means for South Shore lobster and crab fishermen.

About $540 million worth of lobster was caught in the lucrative fishing grounds along the South Shore and around southwestern Nova Scotia last year.

And with the crab industry accounting for another $300 million, Fancy says that protecting those industries is vital for the area.

“Anytime you can get a better price, and not have to be dinged with the tariffs, that’s a good deal for me.”

Prime Minister Mark Carney and Chinese President Xi Jinping signed an agreement on Friday that would immediately reduce seafood tariffs to 15 per cent from 25 per cent. 

And on March 1, the tariffs on lobster and crab are set to disappear altogether. The deal lasts until the end of this year. The deal also affects canola, peas, steel and aluminum.

In exchange, Canada will drop its 100 per cent tariff on Chinese-made electric vehicles and allow 49,000 into the country each year.

“I was in Shelburne on Saturday night at one of the volunteer firefighter smoker events, and when I stood up to give my remarks, I had five or six men stand up and clapped for me in regards to the tariffs, and I had to stop for a second because I thought, ‘Wow, I, never thought I’d get a standing ovation in Shelburne County’, but it spoke to the importance of that deal, and the hard work that we’ve been doing, since October, in regards to trying to secure it.”

Fancy said she and her provincial counterparts, as well as representatives from the fishing industry, pushed the federal government to get a deal done.

Rick Perkins, the former MP for South Shore-St. Margarets, criticized the deal on his Facebook page. He called Chinese EVs “government-made spy machine cars” and questioned what happens to seafood tariffs next January.

“In regards to the term ‘spy machine’,” Fancy says, “I mean, we’re probably both holding a cell phone right now. So it’s kind of null and void and it’s unhelpful rhetoric in regards to the trade deal or what we are allowing in or out of the country.”

Fancy says the Canadian government plans to take the next nine months to continue talking trade with China, to try to get a longer term deal done.

“I’m going to use the analogy, as an educator, you know, when you have people in the playground, and they get upset with each other, and they have a fight, and you bring them in and you talk to them, you’re not going to repair that relationship overnight. So you’re not going to put in these lock and step long-term deals. You’re going to wait and look at how that relationship redevelops.”

She said she’ll travel to Ottawa later this week for Liberal caucus meetings where MPs will get a look at the deal in more detail. But she said she hopes this is just the beginning of more trade for South Shore fishermen.

“We’re seeing this as a huge win. … And it paves the way to resolve some of those long-standing trade barriers that were affecting different sectors.”

China is Canada’s second-largest trading partner after the United States. The government says it wants to increase exports to China by 50 per cent by 2030.

Email: rickconradqccr@gmail.com

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Debris from the fish farm near Coffin Island on Beach Meadows Beach in 2021. (Rick Conrad file photo)

Supporters and opponents of a fish farm expansion in Liverpool Bay will get a chance to make their case in front of Nova Scotia’s aquaculture regulator after all.

The province’s aquaculture review board will hear an application in October from Kelly Cove Salmon to expand its current operation at Coffin Island, just off Beach Meadows Beach in Queens County.

Kelly Cove Salmon is owned by seafood giant Cooke Aquaculture. It applied in 2019 to expand its salmon farming operation off Coffin Island near Liverpool, and to add two new farms off Brooklyn and Mersey Point. 

All three applications would have increased Cooke’s operation to 60 pens from 14 and include trout as well as salmon. It would have meant up to 1.8 million farmed salmon in Liverpool Bay, compared to about 400,000 now.

The board had scheduled hearings for those proposals for March 2024. But it indefinitely adjourned the matter that month with no explanation.

According to groups involved in the hearing, Cooke applied to the board this June for a hearing on only the Coffin Island expansion.

The review board held a conference call with Kelly Cove and some intervenors last week. Hearing dates were set for Oct. 7, 8, 9 and 10 in Liverpool. 

Originally, the board had set aside only two days. But after lawyers for community group Protect Liverpool Bay objected, the board added two more hearing dates. The group is represented by environmental law charity Ecojustice.

“So there was no consultation at all in picking the dates,” said Brian Muldoon, spokesman for the group which has been fighting fish farms in the area since 2018.

“So our lawyers wrote to the ARB and said this is not reasonable and the ARB added two more dates.”

A board spokesman would not confirm the dates or comment on any upcoming hearings. He said any new information on hearings in Liverpool would be posted online.

A few days after this story was posted, the review board updated its website with the hearing notice.

The Region of Queens was one of the intervenors in the original hearings. Mayor Scott Christian told QCCR this week that the municipality still opposes the expansion at Coffin Island.

“We’re staying the course,” he said. 

“Beach Meadows Beach is the beach where we have municipal amenities. That’s where we have our infrastructure, and we want to make sure that that beach continues to be a really attractive and great place for locals and for visitors to use, and so that’s certainly one element of the opposition to the expansion at that site. ”

Muldoon said he’s worried about the hearings in October. 

“I believe they are not listening to the people or residents of Queens County. They’re moving forward with their agenda. They are going to put these fish farms over the areas where our local lobster fishermen lay their spring traps. This is taking income and disrupting our lobster industry. Right there, they should say, OK, we’re dismissing this application based on the data that we received that this is where lobster fishermen have been fishing for decades. And they’re going to turn around and ignore this information? It’s absurd, totally absurd.

“I have no confidence in the board listening to us.”

In the leadup to the originally scheduled hearings, more than 150 residents, businesses and community groups filed written submissions with the board. Most opposed the expansion and the new farms.

Five groups were granted intervenor status at the hearings: Protect Liverpool Bay, the Region of Queens, the Brooklyn Marina, 22 Lobster Fishermen of Liverpool Bay, and Kwilmu’kw Maw-Klusuaqn, which is representing the Acadia First Nation. 

Jamie Simpson of Juniper Law in Halifax represents the lobster fishermen.

He said his clients are still concerned about how the expansion will affect their fishing grounds and how new pens will affect their ability to set and reach their traps.

“Ever since the original hearing was postponed without a date, I think everyone was hopeful that maybe the entire application would be withdrawn but that’s not the case so we’ll deal with the revised application.”

Joel Richardson, spokesman for Cooke Aquaculture, said he didn’t have time for an interview. But in an emailed statement, he wrote that the company “welcomes the opportunity to appear before the aquaculture review board to seek approval of our applications which have been in the provincial system for many years.

“At every step of the way, Kelly Cove has complied with the application process. At the aquaculture review board hearings our representatives will present how the company meets all the regulatory criteria.”

Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston told a business luncheon in Liverpool in February 2024 that he personally opposed new fish farms in Liverpool Bay, though he said he supports the aquaculture industry. 

It was shortly after that that the board postponed and then indefinitely adjourned the hearings.

The Nova Scotia government appointed a new board chair, and some other new members, in February 2024. 

Email: rickconradqccr@gmail.com

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