I have several articles in print right now. One is a 3,000 word profile of Newfoundland Premier Danny Williams, this week's cover story for The Western Standard (
http://www.westernstandard.ca/website/index.cfm ). Another is a 1200-word article on the entrepreneurial spirit of Saint John, New Brunswick-based DreamCatcher Books and Publishing in the current issue of Quill & Quire (
http://www.quillandquire.com/).
The Standard story should be available online (registration required) in another week. The Quill story is only available on the newsstand or to subscribers.
And in today's National Post I argue on the Editorial pages that Prince Edward Island's fish law suit against the federal government is a costly folly.
P.E.I. Escalating a fish fight
National Post Fri 25 Feb 2005
Page: A18 Section: Editorials
Byline: Charles Mandel
Frustrated by years of unproductive wrangling with the federal government, Prince Edward Island has decided to turn up the heat on the fish fracas. On Wednesday, it launched a lawsuit against the Government of Canada and the Department of Fisheries and Oceans. This is the latest shot across the bow in the ongoing and acrimonious battle over fishery resource allocation.
The suit alleges that the federal Minister's failure to establish an open and accountable process for the fishery "violated the rule of law as guaranteed by the Canadian constitution, violated the Oceans Act by putting conservation at risk, failed to conform to his own policies, violated his public trust obligations and failed to exercise licensing authority in accordance with the principles of procedural fairness."
Kevin MacAdam, the Island's Agriculture, Fisheries and Aquaculture Minister, said Thursday that P.E.I. wants fisheries policy to be subject to a "fair, clear, open transparent process." Accordingly, the suit is designed to challenge Fisheries Minister Geoff Regan's constitutional power over the resource.
MacAdam said that although P.E.I.'s $350-million fishing industry contributes more to the federal economy than that of any other province, "we continue to be adversely affected by unfair and arbitrary decisions that affect its continued development." The province contends that its allocation of fish -- including shrimp, snow crab and bluefin tuna -- ignores such criteria as historic dependence and economic viability.
The lawsuit recalls the battle last fall between P.E.I. and New Brunswick over the herring fishery, arguing that the herring factory boat exclusion zone is misplaced and is actually putting the fishery at risk.
Federal MP Shawn Murphy, who represents the Island riding of Hillsborough, wonders if the suit is an attempt by the provincial government to divert attention away from the $31-million scandal over its loan guarantees to a fish processor.
Murphy may be right, but the Island's anger over the fishery is understandable. The dispute over the herring zone alone has gone on without resolution since 1984. In 2004, Island fishermen received reductions in snow crab catch quotas, while New Brunswick and Quebec saw their quotas increase. The story is similar with other species.
Yet the lawsuit seems unlikely to succeed, as it challenges Ottawa in an area -- resource protection -- where judges typically grant governments broad discretion. In the meantime, the case will drag through the courts for years, providing employment for batteries of well-paid lawyers. The cost of all this is something that a tiny province running an estimated $125-million deficit can ill afford.
As frustrated as the province is, it should drop the suit and return to negotiations before the people of P.E.I. find themselves on the hook.
