Minister discusses reversal of surf clam fishing licence

The new federal fisheries minister is offering more details on the recent cancellation of a controversial surf clam fishing licence given to a First Nations company with ties to the Liberal party.

Ottawa said Friday the process to issue a fourth licence to harvest arctic surf clam off the coast of Newfoundland and Labrador and Nova Scotia had been cancelled in early July, and that it won’t be issued this year at all.

The multimillion-dollar licence awarded to the Five Nations Clam Co. was supposed to offer 25 per cent of the catch to local Indigenous communities. But it came under scrutiny after court documents suggested the company did not meet the federal government’s initial eligibility requirements, and that the company had close ties to the federal Liberal party — including former fisheries minister Dominic LeBlanc.

In Conception Bay South, N.L., on Tuesday, new minister Jonathan Wilkinson said LeBlanc made the decision to cancel before he was shuffled out of the portfolio last month, and said it came after a “series of interactions” between the Five Nations Clam Co. and the department.

The licence would have ended Clearwater Seafoods’ 19-year monopoly on the Arctic clam fishery. The award was supposed to promote reconciliation and economic growth within local Indigenous communities, but court documents suggested the company did not meet the federal government’s initial eligibility requirements.