Province to hike levy on lobster landings to five cents per pound The province is planning to double its levy landings to help support the lobster industry. Fisheries and Aquaculture Minister Keith Colwell on Thursday said the Liberal government would introduce legislation during the fall sitting of the legislature to collect a levy on every pound of lobster caught in the province. The recommendation is one of 33 produced by the Maritime Lobster Panel, which looked at challenges facing the industry in Atlantic Canada. “We already have the structure put in place (but) we don’t have the structure to collect it, oddly enough.” But while the panel called for a two-cent levy — one cent from fishermen and one cent from processors — Colwell said his government’s legislation would see five cents collected for each pound of the tasty bottom feeders landed. “Two cents for marketing and three cents for quality,” he said following a cabinet meeting. Colwell said the province will soon announce a pilot project, which would benefit from the quality portion of the levy collection, that will help improve “where we are in the industry.” “It’s our single biggest export in the fishery and we’ve got so many issues we have to address on it,” he said, declining to elaborate further on the project, which will involve fishermen, buyers and processors. MICHAEL GORMAN PROVINCIAL REPORTER
Posted on: Fri, 25 Jul 2014 12:52:34 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015