Control Agreement means an agreement between a Licensee and a person, business or other organization that allows a person other than the Licensee to control or influence the Licensee`s decision to apply to DFO for a ”replacement licence”1 to another fish farmer (commonly referred to as the ”Licence Transfer”). Agreements between the licensee and a recognized financial institution (RFI) are not control agreements if (1) no third party is involved in the agreement or (2) a co-signer, guarantor or other guarantor party to an agreement does not control or influence the licensee`s decision to apply to DFO for a ”replacement licence” to another fish farmer. (i) Coastal and coastal fishing machinery: there is broad support for coastal fishing associations and coastal fishermen`s associations and near-coastal fishing vessels and elements of coastal policy are incorporated into the Regulation. However, some individual fishers have raised concerns about possible limits on how they run their businesses and the types of agreements they can enter into. The main concerns expressed related to existing exemptions and exemptions from the various elements of the amendments, the potential requirement for fishers to change their business structures to comply with the new prohibitions, and the initial proposal to restrict in the regulations the possession of more than one licence per animal species. Stakeholders subject to one or more exceptions/exemptions under the policy regime wanted to ensure that they were maintained. It was also requested that current exemptions and exemptions be documented, reviewed and published. Comments were received on DFO`s current inability to implement existing coastal policies, enforcement expectations, and the desire for the rules to apply to both licensees and third parties entering into agreements or arrangements with them. The regulatory provisions on the fleet separation policy and the Directive on the licensing of undertakings (i.e. licences granted to individuals, wholly-owned companies or organisations to which only one allocation has been granted) are implemented as part of the licensing procedure.
It is DFO`s responsibility to ensure that licences are only granted to individuals or companies wholly per cent. New applicants must demonstrate to DFO licensing officers that they are eligible to obtain a fishing licence. Renewing applicants must continue to report any changes to the majority ownership of a company that holds a DFO licence in accordance with existing guidelines. The transmission of false information to a licensing officer is a criminal offence under the Fisheries Act. Over the past 40 years, Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) has developed a set of guidelines that apply to coastal and coastal fisheries in Atlantic Canada and Quebec. The objective of these policies is to promote viable and profitable activities for the medium-sized fishing enterprise by keeping the licences and associated benefits in the hands of small owners and operators of independent small vessels. However, inshore fishers, fleets and industry associations expressed concern that a licensee`s ability to make independent decisions in its own interest is hampered by the dissemination of agreements and understandings between licensees and third parties such as processors and fish buyers. In these agreements or understandings, third parties who are not entitled to hold land-based licences themselves (in accordance with DFO`s licensing policy) have access to fisheries resources and exercise control over fishing activities and/or revenues from these activities. This interferes with the exercise of the Minister`s discretion to issue permits in a manner that achieves the desired social, economic and cultural objectives. According to a Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) official, control agreements for Canada`s east coast inshore fishing fleet are almost a thing of the past. In 2007, DFO asked fishers across the region to declare whether they had entered into such agreements.
Those who have declared themselves parties to such agreements have been given a deadline, 2014, to withdraw from the agreements. Morley Knight of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans says about 700 fishermen have declared control agreements and almost all have followed the department`s directives. He added that since 1979, the Department`s policy on the control of cartels has been clear. A policy to maintain the owner-operator rule – simply that the holder of a commercial fishing licence is the person who has control over the management and operation of the fishing business – was adopted in 1979 under the mandate of former Fisheries Minister Romeo LeBlanc. .