New hope for Canada’s freshwater fishers
Many people expected that the end of the Freshwater Fish Marketing Corp. (FFMC) monopoly would lead to a disaster in Manitoba. It has not, fortunately.
In fact, this move by the federal government may revitalize the Indigenous commercial fisheries in the northern part of the province.
Manitoba commercial fishers sell about $60 million worth of fish annually. It’s a profitable business.
Manitoba was the last province to withdraw from the Freshwater Fish Marketing Act, which required freshwater fishers to sell their fish through the centralized marketing board. Indigenous fishers in Manitoba, northwestern Ontario, Alberta, Saskatchewan and the Northwest Territories had to sell their fish exclusively through the FFMC. Only the Northwest Territories remains in the agreement.