More groups are adding their voices to the number of organizations concerned with the province’s decision to cancel the MOU for a feasibility study on the proposed National Marine Conservation Area on the South Coast.
Some groups, such as the FFAW and the Aquaculture Industry Association applauded when the Tories cancelled the MOU, while others, such as the town of Burgeo and CPAWS think it is the wrong move.
The latter argument now includes the Salmonid Council. The group calls the decision “craven,” saying there is no balance in what government had done.
The group calls it “infuriating” that government has walked away from what they believe is a “credible science and community based assessment process.” They are calling on government to reverse its decision.
Similar concerns were raised in a joint public statement by numerous tourism stakeholders across the island. Signatories include community leaders in Burgeo and Ramea – including their mayors, the leader of the Burgeo First Nations Band, and numerous other tourism operators – mostly from the west coast.
They argue that government’s decision signals growth in the tourism sector, and the promise of a sustainable future for rural communities, is “no longer a priority.”
The claim that the decision to withdraw from the MOU was “made hastily” and has confirmed “how quickly…government turned its back on the people of the southwest coast” who have been working for decades on the project.
They argue the work being done was on track to ensure 95 per cent of the protected area would be open to all inshore commercial and recreational fisheries, and that it also supported sustainable aquaculture.
They too are calling on government to reconsider their decision.