December 8, 1961
THE FISHERMAN
Page 5
Commercial Fishing Areas Rigby Writes on Ottawa Trip Extended in NWTerritories
Commercial fishing in the Northwest Territories, hitherto restricted to Great Slave Lake in Mackenzie District, has been extended to eight designated areas in Mackenzie and Keewatin districts on a rotating basis, the federal fisheries department announced last week.
Quotas computed on annual catch limit rates have been set for each of the lakes in the eight areas. In six of the areas each lake will be open for two years or until its quota has been filled, after which it will be closed for four years. In the other two areas the maximum two year opening will be followed by a two year closure.
Commercial fishing in some lakes, designated as experimental areas, will be confined to the short
summer season. In the remainder fishing will be allowed on a year round basis within the restrictions of the quota system.
Operations on Great Slave Lake, which has been fished commercially for the past 16 years, will continue to be governed by existing regulations.
The only other commercial fishing operations in the Northwest Territories are the Arctic char fisheries recently developed through Eskimo cooperatives.
Fisheries minister J. Angus Mac-Lean said the department had no intention of curtailing sports fishing. "Anglers can continue to fish anywhere in the Territories," he reported, "and some good lakes will be reserved exclusively for domestic fishing and angling."
New 'Beaver Glass Hulls' Specialises in Fish Boats
Recent acquisition of the plant and assets of BC Glass Hulls Limited by a new company, Beaver Glass Hulls Limited, has produced far more than a change of name and ownership.
Where BC Glass Hulls, a pioneer in fiberglas boat building emphasised production of pleasure craft, Beaver Glass Hulls will specialise in construction of work boats, and particularly fishing vessels.
The three partners in Beaver Glass Hulls are Reg Davis, former owner of North Shore Lumber Company, president; Heinz Hart-man, former foreman for BC Glass
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Hulls, vice president; and Dave Palmer, former sales manager for BC Glass Hulls, secretary treasurer.
Incorporated as Beaver Glass Hulls, the three have acquired the plant and other working assets of BC Glass Hulls from its owner, Gerry Talbot, who has now severed his connection with the firm and left the construction field to specialise in marine design and engineering.
Talbot, a King's College graduate in navol architecture and now a member of Northland Navigation Company's design staff, will continue to operate BC Glass Hulls from his home as a marine design and engineering company.
At the former BC Glass Hulls plant, 266 Esplanade, North Vancouver, Beaver Glass Hulls is now working on its first orders for work
j boats, which include a 30-foot water taxi whose hull is intended as the prototype for a number of similar vessels.
With a rounded seineboat stern, it will be adapted to produce a
I fast sturdy gillnetter suited to modern needs.
Beaver Glass Hulls has established a close working relationship
j with Yamanaka Boat Works and next year it plans joint production
: of gillnetters with the Steveston firm.
A mold will be taken of one of Yamanaka's successful heavy gillnetters from which Beaver Glass Hulls will construct the hull, deck and probably the molded cabin. Yamanaka Boat Works will complete the vessel and instal the en-1 gine and equipment.
In its search for new types of work boats able to meet the exacting demands of the fishing and other marine industries, Beaver Glass Hulls is receptive to new ideas. "We are open to suggestions for new designs from anyone," Palmer told The Fisherman this week.
Impressions of An Inquiry
Three Herring Quotas Hiked
Substantial herring catches have already filled the extended quota in one of the three east coast districts for which quota extensions were announced December 1.
The fisheries department reported Thursday this week that the lower east coast quota, extended to 50,000 tons, has been filled. And the middle east coast quota, extended to 15,000 tons, was some 3,000 tons short of being filled as of December 6.
The upper east coast, however, with an extended quota of 15,000 tons, has shown little advance over the 8,530 tons recorded on December 2.
The west coast catch on December 2 was 19,135 tons.
In District 2, the catch at the same date was: north, 1,893 tons; central, 11,442 tons; Queen Charlotte Islands, 776 tons.
The December 2 report showed meal production at 15,363 tons and oil yield at 2,462,825 gallons.
Puget Sound Closed
All Puget Sound waters were closed to commercial salmon fishing by Washington state fisheries department last week. Purse seine fishing ended November 29 and gillnet fishing November 30.
By WILLIAM RIGBY
For a week in November I sat as a spectator in a room in the Centre Block of the Parliament Buildings at Ottawa during all eight sessions of the public hearings of the committee of inquiry into the Unemployment Insurance Act.
I had been sent to speak to the brief previously submitted in writing to the committee by the United Fishermen and Allied Workers' Union.
Unlike other federally appointed royal commissions and special committees, the body before whom I was to appear had decided not to travel. The only public sessions, it had been announced, would be held in Ottawa, and the general executive board of our Union had decided that in view of the importance of presenting the views of our membership directly to the committee, the best return from the costs involved would be obtained not merely by going down to Ottawa for the hour or so allotted to each organisation submitting a brief, but by sitting in on all the sessions in order to be well informed on the representations made to the committee by other organisations.
Our own brief was based on the policy resolutions on the subject adopted at the convention of the Union held in March, and its subject matter is well known to readers of The Fisherman. In these ar-
ticles,   therefore,   I will mainly impressions  derived from my role as a spectator rather than as a participant in the hearings. COMMITTEE WITHOUT LABOR REPRESENTATION
The committee was appointed last July by the Diefenbaker government and consists of four members. Chairman of the committee is Ernest C. Gill, president of the Canada Life Assurance Company, and the other members are Etienne Crevier, president of a Quebec insurance company, La Prevoyance Compagnie d'Assurances, Dr. J. R. Petrie, a consulting economist from Montreal and Dr. John J. Deutsch, well known in BC from his association with UBC but presently vice principal of Queen's University in Ontario.
It is significant of the attitude of the federal government that on a committee instructed to "inquire into and report on the suitability of the scope, basic principles and provisions of the Unemployment Insurance Act", it did not see fit to appoint a representative of the working people, who are directly and intimately affected by everything in the Act and the Regulations.
EMPLOYER ORGANISATIONS PREDOMINATE AT HEARING
Within the limits of the time schedule it had established, t h e committee treated all who appeared before it with unfailing courtesy and consideration. Nevertheless, the feeling that predominated at the conclusion of the hearings was one of a lack of balance in the viewpoints that had been expressed.
The cause of this feeling becomes obvious when one lists those
present who appeared before the committee during the week.
Employer associations predominated over any other kind of organisation. Between the Canadian Chamber of Commerce which led off on the first day and the appearance of the Canadian Manufacturers' Association on the last day, there appeared the Canadian Pulp and Paper Association, the Fisheries Council of Canada, the Council of the Forest Industries of BC, the Retail Merchants Association of Canada and the Canadian Retail Federation. The members of these organisations under the Unemployment Insurance Act all contribute to the Insurance Fund in the capacity of employers.
It is not surprising then that by and large their approach and proposals exemplified the repetition which is said to be the essential feature of effective advertising.
As against these seven employer briefs, there were appearances by three trade unions in addition to our own—the National Union of Public Employees, the UE (United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers) and the International Railway Brotherhoods' legislative committee.
Only one political party, the Communist Party of Canada, sent a spokesman to appear before the committee in defence of its proposals.
Other   organisations   that appeared were the Canadian Life Insurance Officers' Association and the National Council of Women. INDEPENDENT BRIEF DEFENDS WOMEN'S RIGHTS
A presentation that in a number of ways impressed me most was that made by an Ottawa woman, Mrs. Svanhuit Josie. How she had
Alaska Governor Slaps North Pacific Decisions
Governor William E. Egan of Alaska is openly critical of the failure of the International North Pacific Fisheries Commission, at its recent eighth annual meeting in Tokyo, to shift the abstention line for Japanese high seas salmon fishing to the west.
"It is certainly disappointing to me that agreement was not reached toward moving the abstention line west of the present 175 degrees west longitude," he declared in a press statement following the Commission meeting.
"This is all wrapped up in the state department and sometimes I wonder just how much is left for the American commissioners to decide."
The lead story in the Seattle Fishermen's News of November 16 states bitterly:
"The Japanese 'licence' to intercept North American stocks of salmon was renewed for the eighth time last week as the International North Pacific Fisheries Commission wound up the annual meetings in Tokyo.
"Comments from the Pacific coast ranged from disappointment to disgust. With the treaty near end, most observers are of the opinion the Japanese will continue to stall the issue of moving the line from its present position of 175 degrees west longitude until the expiration date, then attempt to negotiate something better."
The strong US comments apparently were evoked by the Japanese delegates' insistence that before they can agree to consider shifting the provisional line they must be given indisputable scientific evidence their high seas salmon operations are depleting North American runs.
At the Tokyo meeting, Milton E. Brooding, chairman of the US delegation, said the Commission could not afford to wait too long while it sought "a perfect theoretical basis for action."
TREATY REVISION
Two references to possible revision of the treaty were made by Japanese members during the Commission meeting, according to published reports.
One was made by Japanese agriculture and forestry minister Ichiro Kono in his statement that when the convention itself is discussed, his government would "present our case fully and at the same time examine intensively the views of others" with the intent "to conserve and utilise the fishery resources of the North Pacific in a way most reasonable and appropriate to the countries concerned."
The other was made by Koichiro Kobayashi on behalf of the Japanese section of the Commission.
"Eight years have elapsed since this convention came into force," he said. "In most recent years there have been some new developments which were not foreseen at the time of the treaty negotiations."
This was generally construed as an allusion to the entry of the Soviet Union into North Pacific fisheries.
RESTRAINT ESSENTIAL
United States concern over Japanese high seas salmon fishing was reflected in US interior secretary Stewart Udall's statement that "some measures must be taken to meet the immediate problem" posed by scientists' predictions of poor sockeye runs in 1962 and 1963.
"In 1962 the situation will be especially critical," he said. "The runs are expected to be only a fraction of the runs of 1960 and 1961.
"It will be difficult to assure that adequate fish reach their spawning grounds so that this fishery upon which the Bristol Bay region of Alaska is so dependent can be maintained.
"Clearly restraint is called for. This is a prime consideration of my government and I must candidly express our concern over it." THREAT TO HALIBUT
Supporting  the  Canadian dele-
gation's plea for restriction of Japanese trawl fishing operations south of the Aleutians until the halibut survey in that area is completed, Udall said:
"Substantial bottom fish operations are already under way in the Bering Sea. If these operations expand into waters to the south, they will jeopardise the conservation of the halibut resources of the eastern North Pacific Ocean.
"While it is perhaps not the responsibility of this Commission to seek a final solution to this problem, the Commission must, in our judgment, consider what can be done within the scope of its powers to ensure the future of this resource.
"It seems appropriate that the Commission take cognisance of the problem, recognise the need for restraint and make appropriate recommendations to our governments."
ABSTENTION MUST REMAIN
Canada's deputy fisheries minister George R. Clark said Canada would insist that stocks qualifying under the convention remain under abstention.
"The Canadian section still contends that the stocks of fish for which Canada has submitted reports continue to meet the conditions for abstention," he asserted.
"We will continue our efforts to meet any reasonable request for additional data which may be needed to consider any proposal for revision of the existing abstention cases."
Although the Commission agreed to release herring off the US coast from abstention, it retained restrictions prohibiting Japanese fishing on herring off the British Columbia coast or originating in BC waters.
come to prepare and present a 53 page brief to the committee may perhaps be best explained in her own words: "My original reason for accepting this committee's general invitation to individuals to submit 'information, proposals and opinions' relating to the much discussed and controversial subject of unemployment insurance was that I have been concerned for some time about the attacks on working women, most of them unfounded, that have been made with increasing vigor as unemployment has persisted . . .
"I have gone to considerable trouble to investigate the position of women under the UI Act as revealed by the public record . . .
"In following sources of information through two decades of experience in operation of the UI Act and after looking at similar legislation in other countries, I became aware of important aspects of the subject beyond those affecting women . . ."
Until Mrs. Josie appeared on the third day of the hearings, the smell from the drains in the hearings was terrific. I am not referring to the plumbing in the Parliament Buildings, which is excellent, but to the "drains on the Fund" to which one employer brief after another attributed the depletion of the Insurance Fund.
When not unemployment but drains were being advanced as the cause of our troubles and not useful work but a "plug the drains" program as the remedy, it was like a breath of fresh air in the hearings when Mrs. Josie told the committee "my concern is with the human problems of unemployment as they affect the individual and the family, as well as with the implications for the economic life of the nation. I . . . would remind you of the importance of maintaining the working force, on which the economy of the country depends and of the counter-cyclical influence of benefit payments to the unemployed."
BACKGROUND IS A BARE CUPBOARD
Of course the background to the inquiry, indeed the main reason for the establishment of the committee, was the fact that after four successive years of heavy unemployment, the prediction for the coming winter and spring in a report tabled in the House of Commons was not calculated to dispel the accumulating gloom.
"There will probably be a further severe drop in the U! Fund in 1961-62 and the Fund is likely to be exhausted by early 1962, at the latest bv the end of the next seasonal benefit period, May 15, 1962 . . .
"The increase in revenue provided by the 1959 amendments in contribution rates and in the raising of the wage ceiling would have more than offset the cost of these changes had unemployment remained at the level which was used in the calculations relating to the 1955 revision.
"However, changes in the level of unemployment have so increased the benefit load that there is now a large shortfall between average annual revenue and average benefit payments," states the last report of the UI advisory committee.
(In our next issue W. Rigby will outline proposals advanced by employer organisations at the committee hearings.)
Sunbury Local, WA Send Their Thanks
Sunbury Local and Women's Auxiliary to UFAWU send their thanks and appreciation to all who donated foodstuffs and help. Also special appreciation to Oscar Johnson for salmon for our Annual Smoker and Dance.
Mrs. Elma Tapala.
Secretary.  Sunbury   W A
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