“I am very pleased that Minister Keith Ashfield has taken these changes off the table,” said Minister MacKinley. “Many efforts were made by the Prince Edward Island Fishermen’s Association and by our government to keep these policies in place and it’s good for the fishery that there will be no change.”

The owner-operator policy requires the fishing license holder to catch the fish, and fleet separation prevents a company from both catching and processing fish. The federal policy changes were discussed earlier this year when the Department of Fisheries and Oceans released a paper on modernizing the industry.

A unanimous resolution was passed in the Prince Edward Island Legislative Assembly last spring calling on the federal government to keep the policies in place to support the inshore fishery.

“Our government’s position on this issue was clear and we took every opportunity with the federal government to advocate for no change to these policies,” said the Minister. “My colleagues from Atlantic Canada and I are united on this issue and we discussed the matter at great length with Minister Ashfield at the meeting of the Canadian Council of Fisheries and Aquaculture Ministers two weeks ago in Victoria, British Columbia.”