SKIPPER’S BLOG: The Many Faces of Fisheries

Here we are and, you say, not a moment too soon: the end of a mini-blog-series- looking back at the recent Ministers of Fisheries and Aquaculture.

In case you’ve just arrived, we started looking at the people who have held the job since the current government took power in 2003. The impetus for that exercise in political poke-funnery was the very serious fact that the current government has changed its fish ministers more often than, well, anyone.

In fact they’ve changed the leadership in the department more often — by a long shot — than any government since Confederation in 1949: Joey Smallwood’s government lasted 23 years and had five fisheries ministers (a different minister every 4.6 years on average). The Frank Moores/Brian Peckford government lasted 17 years and produced eight ministers (an average of 2.1 years per minister). The Clyde Wells/Brian Tobin/Roger Grimes administration lasted 14 years and put six ministers in place (an average of 2.3 years per minister). And the current Danny Williams/Kathy Dunderdale government, which has been in power for nine years, has produced seven fisheries ministers (a new minister every 1.3 years on average).

So far we have looked at the time spent in Fisheries by Trevor Taylor, Tom Rideout, Tom Hedderson, and Clyde Jackman.

Today, we look at the most recent Minister: the current Justice Minister and House Leader Darin King.

A Tough Year

Here we go again with the three-letter thing: Trevor Taylor’s time in charge was focused on RMS. Tom Rideout was all FPI. There was mostly SFA happening during Tom Hedderson’s term. And Clyde Jackman was all about the MOU.

Now we have Darin King and the three letters that surrounded his barely a year in charge: OCI.

Darin King was the third straight teacher to be named Fisheries Minister in October 2011 but he was a different animal than the two who previously held the job.

I will be the first to tell you that I liked Darin King when he got the job.

And that’s really quite something because the one previous dealing I had with him was when he was gagging a bunch of teachers from speaking publicly back when he was the head honcho at the Eastern School District. I

He is as arrogant and cocky as they come, but he is intelligent and seems to enjoy grabbing issues by the you-know-whats. In short, I thought he was perfect to be a fisheries minister in Newfoundland and Labrador.

Whether I was right or wrong we’ll never know because he was barely there long enough to have business cards printed. It was only a year, but boy, what a year it was.

First off, outside the collapse of groundfish in the early 1990s, there has never been a time in our history when so many fish plants have closed as happened in the past year. At one point back in the spring of this year, seven fish plants in Newfoundland and Labrador were shut down for good all within days of each other.

The most poignant and problematic closure out of all of them for King was the shutdown of Marystown OCI plant which had been the “mother ship” for groundfish processing in the province for decades.

The focus of the argument there, and now in Fortune, is whether or not the province — namely, the minister — would allow the company to ship out a significant amount of yellowtail and redfish unprocessed.

In Marystown, OCI promised 18 weeks of work for the people there if their request was granted. The workers themselves turned down the notion, insisting — rightly or wrongly — that NL fish should be harvested to the benefit of NL people. Later, King himself turned down the request (click HERE for the blow-by-blow on that one). 

But even as he did that, there were whispers in the industry everywhere you went that it was for show, that the decision would only be temporary and that King fully intended to lift the veil on exemptions for minimum processing for OCI — especially since the new offer from the company included full time work for 110 people smack dab in the middle of King’s own electoral district in Fortune.

Sure enough, in the last few months in the position, the bulk of King’s statements seemed to be leaning towards lifting the minimum processing requirements with talk of dramatic changes coming for the industry, and the idea that fish was no good to anyone left in the water, and the like.

That was quite a departure from back in April, however when all members of the House of Assembly, including King, said and did THIS.

The other thing we learned about King is that he’s probably not a fan of the Fish, Food and Allied Workers (FFAW).

In February of this year he went public and lambasted the union over what he saw as unfair criticism of government and promptly cut off the flow of money — thought to be around $1.2 million over the past five years — being spent on union science programs and the like (memories of that event can be found HERE and HERE and HERE)

And even up until his very last minute in the position of Fisheries Minister — and even a little bit since he was shuffled out — King has been putting his dress shoes squarely into the gonads of McCurdy and Co. at nearly every opportunity.

Just days before he was shuffled out he insisted that if the OCI deal for Fortune collapsed it would the union’s fault (read that one HERE).

That tactic seemed to work as union local members in Fortune turned their fire on the FFAW executive for not giving the deal the green light over concerns about security of jobs in Fortune and issues around how the resource would be harvested (possibly using foreign vessels and crew).

Of course to place the onus on the FFAW’s back was a clever move, but also a pile of steaming horse farts since the decision is the minister’s to make, and the minister’s alone. But King was in a tight spot: Say yes to the OCI proposal and you get 110 jobs for people on your rural district who will vote for you until the end of days, but you’ll open the can of worms that is shipping out unprocessed NL fish to foreign countries. Or he could have said no, and the jobs and votes would evaporate into the wind, but a line in the sand would be drawn on resource development.

King’s short watch also included important enhancements to the province’s Fisheries Loan Guarantee Program, the establishment of an industry safety association, and there were some small dribs and drabs in marketing but still no all-encompassing NL seafood marketing initiative of which to speak.

So what to make of King’s time on the throne?

It was eventful and had some promise, but like many recent ministers it was over so quickly we barely knew what to make of it.

It is clear to me and everyone else that King has his sights squarely set on being premier, and fisheries was merely a stepping stone, and represented a chance to build his personal profile — which seems to have been the case.

In truth it is probably for the best he was moved out of Fisheries at this point anyway given the decision that looms in Fortune with respect to OCI’s groundfish proposal. Given the importance of that decision alone it’s probably best that someone with a bit less conflict be in the drivers’ seat.

And it turns out that person will be the new minister, Derrick Dalley, a former social worker, guidance counsellor and school principal from the Twillingate, NL, area.

He’ll have his work cut out for him — and if the current trend of changing ministers on the fly holds true, he’ll only have until sometime after Halloween next year to get the job done.