Question Period Note: Banked Licences

• Available banked licences are now being issued to Indigenous communities that have signed a Rights Reconciliation Agreement.
• These banked licences are not new; they have not been active since the early-to-mid-2000s when they were purchased through various Indigenous programs such as the Marshall Response Initiative.
• The banked licences represent a small fraction to the overall commercial fishery and do not pose a conservation concern.
• This is an important step in moving forward in the spirit of respect and reconciliation.

Background
• In response to the Supreme Court of Canada decision in Marshall in 1999, the government approved a policy response initiative (Marshall Response Initiative (MRI)) designed to address immediate demands by affected Indigenous communities for increased access to fisheries resources. The MRI was completed over two phases, beginning in 2000-01 and ending 2006-07.
• The MRI program funding allowed DFO to retire licences through voluntary relinquishment (about $300M was expended on access) and then re-issued those licences to communities under the Aboriginal Communal Fishing Licences Regulations. During this period, various access was provided for Marshall communities as well as capacity building funding was provided for business management and training and mentoring. Some communities chose not to obtain access but focused on other opportunities.
• It was envisaged that following the MRI, negotiations with Indigenous communities would begin leading to a “modern day treaty” that would address the scope of the treaty rights. The process of longer-term negotiations, led by Indigenous Affairs, was slow and sporadic across the 34 communities. As MRI funding was concluding, DFO retired over 300 licences in the Gulf (110 in NB and 102 in PE) and 99 in Maritimes Regions (NS) and held (i.e. banked) these licences pending the outcome of negotiations with Indigenous communities. The only caveat was that licences had to remain in the province from which the licence was retired; this was a commitment made to the Provinces so that fishing effort was not removed from one province to another.
• The Department is currently undertaking Rights Reconciliation Agreement (RRA) negotiations with Indigenous communities/aggregates across the Atlantic Provinces and Quebec. Separate funding was approved for the RRA initiative and it was intended that banked licences relinquished at the end of the MRI could be made available to communities/aggregates that signed an RRA.
• An exercise was launched in May 2019 to gauge interest with the four tables in NB in these banked licences, as there is considerable overlap in their perceived fishing territory. Based on the feedback received, all communities have expressed an equal interest in obtaining all available access under the NB banked licences.
• Another exercise was launched in February 2020 to receive the views from all negotiation tables on the criteria to be used when deciding how the banked licences could be distributed. Only one group and two communities provided their views and it varied greatly (i.e. opposing views on criteria to be used) depending upon the group/community. Wolastoqey Nation of New Brunswick (WNNB) once again asserted that their fishing grounds are all of the Atlantic which could impact the distribution of the banked licences depending upon the criteria selected.
• The decision on the relative population size and adjacency as the main criteria to be used when re-allocating the banked licences was communicated to First Nations, fishing industry and Provinces on July 10, 2020. As expected, depending upon their position, the decision was either welcomed or criticized.
• As a ten-year Interim Fisheries Implementation Agreement with Elsipogtog and Esgenoôpetitj, who represent 60 per cent of the Mi’kmaq population in NB, was signed on August 15, 2019 it was anticipated that both Elsipogtog and Esgenoôpetitj would receive their share of the banked licences for NB, especially the valued lobster licences in Lobster Fishing Area (LFA) 25 prior to the lobster season starting in August. Only Elsipogtog received six lobster licences. To date, none of the banked licences have been issued to the Esgenoôpetitj. Several discussions took place with Esgenoôpetitj to determine their intent with this fishery, mostly to find out what port they intend to fish from in order to issue the appropriate licences. Esgenoôpetitj have indicated that they could not fish the licences this year as they were not given enough time to prepare for the fishery.
• Industry have raised a number of issues regarding the banked licences (e.g. not be consulted, potential for conservation concerns) and the department continues to meet with the fishing industry to discuss their concerns and answer any questions that they may have regarding the banked licences.

Criteria used for the allocation of Banked Licences
• After consulting with First Nations, adjacency and relative population size were the criteria used in the re-issuance of these licences.
• Adjacency to the resource means that the fishing community and its current fishing access are located close to where the banked licence(s) would be fished.
• Using relative population size as an additional criteria for allocating these banked licences aims to provide the maximum benefit to the most people.