Ethics watchdog investigating fisheries minister over licence

OTTAWA • Canada’s ethics watchdog is investigating federal fisheries minister Dominic LeBlanc’s decision to award a lucrative fishing licence to a group in Atlantic Canada with ties to the Liberals and LeBlanc’s own family.

Ethics commissioner Mario Dion launched an investigation last Friday under the Conflict of Interest Act, his office confirmed. The ethics probe comes after the Conservatives raised concerns about connections between the Liberals and the winner of a new Arctic surf clam licence, a partnership between Nova Scotia-based Premium Seafoods and the Five Nations Clam Company, which includes Indigenous communities in the four Atlantic Provinces and Quebec.

Conservative fisheries critic Todd Doherty wrote to Dion to request an inquiry earlier this month, highlighting the fact that Premium Seafoods CEO Edgar Samson is the brother of a Liberal MP. The president of NunatuKavut, one of Five Nations’ Indigenous partners, is also a former Liberal MP.

At the time, the ethics commissioner’s office told the Post that no investigation was being contemplated. Last week, Doherty said he planned to submit a new request with more information, including a detail revealed in court records that showed Gilles Thériault, the cousin of LeBlanc’s wife, was also involved with Five Nations.

The Arctic surf clam licence has been a subject of controversy since the government decided last year to create a new licence and award one quarter of the existing quota to a partnership that included multiple Indigenous communities. The licence was intended to break the monopoly on the Arctic surf clam fishery held by Halifax-based Clearwater Seafoods and to further reconciliation by helping Indigenous peoples gain a foothold in a lucrative market. The clams are a popular sushi ingredient in Asia and, in 2016, Clearwater’s revenue from surf clam sales was nearly $92 million.

Soon after LeBlanc announced the winning bidder in February, it came to light that Five Nations didn’t have all of its Indigenous partners nailed down when it was awarded the licence — it only formally announced its partners in March. Other unsuccessful applicants have complained that the process wasn’t fair, as has Newfoundland fisheries minister Gerry Byrne.

In late March, the Miawpukek Mi’kamawey Mawi’omi First Nation, which submitted an unsuccessful bid for the licence with two other Indigenous groups in Newfoundland, filed an application for judicial review of the decision in Federal Court. The application claims that Five Nations didn’t meet the criteria for the licence because it didn’t have multiple Indigenous partners in place when it applied.

The federal government has submitted hundreds of pages of documents in response to the legal challenge. The records show LeBlanc was aware of weaknesses in the Five Nations proposal when he chose the winner.

“Please take next steps with (the proponent) and ensure that additional Indigenous communities are quickly confirmed,” he wrote as part of his decision.

But the court records also show the government identified weaknesses in many of the eight other applications as well. In the past, LeBlanc has dismissed any suggestion that the licence was awarded improperly, insisting that his decision would give Indigenous communities “historic access to this important offshore fishery.”