Question Period Note: Indigenous Moderate Livelihood Fishing

• Through an array of collaborative arrangements and nation-to-nation agreements, my Department continues to work with Atlantic Treaty Nations to uphold treaty rights, including the Supreme Court confirmed right to fish in pursuit of a moderate livelihood, while also advancing reconciliation and protecting fishery resources for the benefit of all.
• Thanks in part to Departmental investments of more than
$1 billion over the past 25 years to support the implementation of the right to fish in pursuit of a moderate livelihood, annual communal commercial landings for Atlantic Treaty Nations have increased from $3 million (or 0.2 per cent of total landed value) to $208.5 million in 2021—7.1 per cent of total landed value.
• Our goal is a fishery that is peaceful, productive, and prosperous, upholds the Marshall decisions, and ensures that Treaty Nations are able to exercise treaty rights in a way that is reflective of their visions and needs.

• The Supreme Court of Canada formally recognized a Right of Indigenous people in Atlantic Canada to hunt and fish for a moderate livelihood in 1999. This Treaty Right applies to 34 Indigenous communities (Mi’kmaq and Wolastoqiyik First Nations in New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, and the Gaspé, Region of Quebec) as well as the Peskotomuhkati Nation at Skutik in New Brunswick (collectively referred to as “Treaty Nations”).
• The Department has invested over $1 billion over the past 25 years to support the implementation of the right to fish in pursuit of a moderate livelihood through various programs and initiatives that have successfully enabled Treaty Nations’ acquisition of fishing access, vessels and gear, as well as capacity building and training.
• These investments have supported meaningful Indigenous participation in commercial fisheries. Since 1999, annual Indigenous communal commercial landings for Treaty Nations have increased from $3 million (0.2 per cent of total landed value) to $208.5 million in 2021 (7.1 per cent of total landed value). In parallel, the share of licences for Treaty Nations have increased from 1.5 per cent in 1999 to 4.5 per cent in 2021.
• In 2017, Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) launched the Rights Reconciliation Agreements (RRA) process with Treaty Nations, with a mandate to negotiate enhanced fisheries collaborative management, fisheries governance and increased fisheries access, all while recognizing but not defining the moderate livelihood right.
• The RRA mandate expired in April 2023, with DFO concluding seven RRAs with 15 First Nations (40 per cent of the total Treaty communities’ population).
• In 2021, a new pathway to rights implementation was announced through the development of Moderate Livelihood Fishing Plans (MLFPs).
• MLFPs are conducted within established commercial seasons, include other restrictions similar to those of regular commercial licences, and are harvested exclusively by community members for their own benefit. Of note, these are understandings rather than agreements. Treaty Nations produce a community-based fishing plan and DFO produces an authorization parallel to the plan.
• To date, since 2021, 21 understandings with 16 Treaty communities have been reached for lobster, elver and/or gaspereau.
• In December 2024, the Department announced $259.4 million over three years to further implement the right to fish in pursuit of a moderate livelihood. This funding will support commercial fisheries access acquisition through the ‘willing buyer, willing seller’ approach and continued engagement on the establishment of long-term collaborative fisheries management agreements between DFO and Indigenous communities.
• There are several active litigations related to the Treaty right, including a claim by a Treaty Nation challenging DFO’s implementation of the right, and a judicial review by an industry group challenging the legality of one of the RRA.
• The Department continues to have regular and frequent meetings at various levels with non-Indigenous fishing industry stakeholders to answer questions about moderate livelihood fishing and provide industry an opportunity to share its views. However, non-Indigenous industry remains critical of being excluded from discussions with Treaty Nations and lack of transparency regarding Canada’s long-term approach to rights-based fishing.
 

If pressed on access acquisition
• The Department prefers to use a voluntary licence relinquishment approach, known as willing buyer-willing seller, to acquire fishing access for Indigenous rights-based fishing as it promotes conservation, transparency, and stability in the fishery.
• As needed, my Department will consider alternate access and allocation mechanisms to support rights-based fishing.
• My Department will continue to work with licence holders to ensure that voluntary licence relinquishment is delivering the required access needed in an effective manner.