The largest salmon cannery in Canada, owned by one of Canada's richest men, Jim Pattison -- is closing its processing plant in Prince Rupert, leaving as many as 500 people out of work.
Now, workers in Prince Rupert are demanding that the federal government revoke the fishing license for Canfisco and instead give these licenses to local fishermen to create local jobs.
Justin Trudeau promised change when he got elected to Ottawa. It's time to move away from the rip-and-ship resource model from the Harper decade and move to a resource model that creates good local jobs.
Tell PM Trudeau to revoke the fishing licenses from Canfisco, and instead give them to local fishermen who will process the salmon locally and create jobs.
Over the past few years, many Canadian fish-processing jobs have been moving out of the country, and trade deals like the TPP or the Canada-China FIPA threaten to accelerate this trend.
This is just more of the same policy of extracting resources and exporting them raw that Stephen Harper promoted so fervently in the oil patch and with other natural resources. Multi-national corporations pocket the profits -- and when the resources are gone, so are the jobs.
But the fact is that these resources should benefit the local people who extract and steward them. This means creating local processing jobs that bring income to those communities that need it the most.
The fish caught off the coast of BC should create jobs in local BC communities. If Canfisco won't create these jobs, then they have lost the social license needed to keep their fishing license.
Call on PM Trudeau to stand with BC's coastal communities and revoke Canfisco's fishing licenses.
Together, we have stood up against Nestlé trying to extract BC's freshwater for $2.25 for millions of liters even during a drought and Shell trying to build dangerous offshore oil projects. Now we need to stand with the community of Prince Rupert suffering from Jim Pattison's mad rush for profit.
More information
CBC. 12 November 2015.
Northern View. 22 January 2016.