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Budget's interest rate aid to fishermen only 'a joke'
ERNIE DAVIDSON 685-6528 755 Terminal Avenue Vancouver, B.C.
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In what even the bankers are admitting is a farce, Finance Minister Allan McEachen's new budget will reduce fishermen's interest payments by up to four percent — if they buy new boats.
The new non-measure replaces a Robin Hood in reverse scheme in the November budget that "helped" fishermen by giving banks a billion-dollar tax break.
Brian Hann, manager of independent business loans for the Royal Bank, agreed July 5 that the so-called aid to fishermen in the new budget is "a joke."
"Do you know a single boat that has been sold on this coast recently?" Hann asked. "A fisherman would have to be mad to buy a new boat."
The June 28 budget promised interest rate aid to small businessmen, including fishermen and farmers. What was delivered was a pledge to pay up to four percent of the interest cost on loans "granted to fishermen for the purchase of new depreciable property."
You must spend more than $10,000 or less than $500,000 to qualify.
Still undecided, according to
PHOTO CONTEST
Seines at Skiaegate Narrows by Joe YoshiJa
GRAND PRIZE $100
Whether you shoot with a box camera or a costly single-lens reflex, you should be aiming this summer to snag the Grand Prize of $100 in our first Fisherman Photo Contest. All sizes and types of photograph are welcome —color print, black and white, or color slide — and all entries will be returned at the end of the contest.
Eligibility. All readers of the newspaper are welcome to enter as often as they wish. Employees of the UFAWU, The Fisherman and their relatives are not eligible. There is no entry fee.
Prizes. Our judges will award a grand prize of $100 for the best photo of any type submitted during the contest. A prize of $25 will be awarded for the best photograph expressing the theme Harvest. To encourage participation from all sectors of the industry, we will offer runner-up prizes in this category for the best picture ashore and the best afloat. A third cate-
gory will see a $25 prize for the best picture on the theme Fools Afloat. Have fun. Finally, the best entry received in each of the four months of the contest will win a prize. The winners will be published in The Fisherman.
Judges. Our four judges are Steve Bosch, a staff photographer for the Vancouver Sun, Susan Martin, a photography graduate of Ryerson Polytechnical Institute whose work has been exhibited in Toronto and Calgary, and Geoff Meggs and Jim Sinclair, the editors of The Fisherman.
Deadline. Any photograph taken in 1982 is eligible, but all entries must be received by Friday, October 29. Monthly winners for July to October will be judged from entries received by the first day of the following month.
Enter early, enter often, enter any fishing industry picture at all to be eligible for our grand prize.
Mail entries to: The Fisherman, 138 East Cordova St., Vancouver, V6A 1K9
Hann, is how and when the funds would be paid to the lender to make up the four percent subsidy. About $400 million has been set aside for the task.
Under the program, interest rates will not be subsidized below 12 percent. Thus, if interest rates are 13 percent, only a one percent subsidy will apply. If interest rates are 20 percent, they will be subsidized to 16 percent.
The November budget, which the June disaster was designed to replace, offered banks a billionHiollar tax break in an effort to give interest rate relief to fishermen.
Under this proposal, fishermen were able to convert debt into a small business development bond repayable at one percent above half the prime rate plus profit spread.
This provided a short-term bonanza for the banks, which were able to treat the interest income from the bonds as tax-free, which probably more than compensated for the reduced rate of interest.
But even banks have a limit to the value of a tax break. For the Royal, that limit was about $1 billion, Hann says, and about $200 million of that benefit was won in B.C., primarily by converting fishing industry debt to bonds. (The Royal is the main lender to fishermen.)
"We're doing anything we can to help the industry," Hann said. "We're avoiding foreclosure unless the person throws the keys on the table or simply disappears.
"The main thing is to be frank — keep the lines of communication open."
Sliding B.C. prices mark decline of halibut fishery
Just three years after the Canadian government allowed B.C. longliners to be barred from fishing halibut in Alaskan waters, the Canadian industry appears to be near extinction.
The once-mighty Prince Rupert and Vancouver Halibut Exchanges recorded only five deliveries during the entire second round of halibut fishing in B.C. waters and Canadian vessels streamed into U.S. ports to deliver at much higher prices.
The result is the virtual elimination of halibut processing in B.C. and the end of a competitive halibut market for B.C. fishermen. The collapse of the exchanges appears certain.
When the second round concluded June 21, Canadian fishermen had added 1.6 million pounds to the 1.4 million taken in the first round. With a total Area 2B quota of 5.4 million pounds, a fifth round of fishing appears likely.
J. W. Nicholls Co. Ltd. reported an average Canadian price of $1,234 a pound in the second round, down slightly from a first-round average of $1,258.
But these prices bore no relation to American payments, which ran as high as $1.45 a pound average in Canadian funds. Fishermen reported prices as high as $1.50 in Seattle in Canadian funds. In Alaska, halibut from the second round fetched 90cents, $1 and$1.20for
small, medium and large fish in U.S. funds, a far cry from Canadian prices.
The 1979 Canada-U.S. agreement, condemned at the time by the UFAWU as a sellout of Canadian interests, forced a two-year withdrawal of Canadian longline vessels from U.S. waters.
The treaty has had a devastating impact on the B.C. halibut fleet, which is restricted to Canadian waters and actually suffered expansion as a result of chaotic implementation of licence limitation.
Now without significant impact on the International Pacific Halibut Commission, Canadian representatives must sit dumbly by while U.S. interests determine the timing of openings. Simultaneous fisheries this year along the Pacific seaboard combined to create short-term gluts and to depress prices.
Gordon Peltonen, of the IPHC, said July 6 that Washington State fishermen had taken about half of their 200,000-pound quota by the end of the second round. Area 2C, south Alaska, is closed with the 3.4 million pound quota taken.
In Area 3A, fishing is closed with 13 million pounds taken of a 14-million pound quota. Also closed is the Bering Sea, with 1.3 million pounds taken of a 1.4-million pound quota. Only 330,000 pounds has been taken in Area 3B, where the quota is 3 million.
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THE FISHERMAN - JULY 12, 1982/7