The provincial government has presented Ottawa with a wish list to help workers and companies in the fishing industry.

There have been several fishery protests over the past few weeks and Fisheries Minister Gerry Byrne says he has concerns as well. He’s calling on Ottawa to:

• Extend all active regular and Employment Insurance fishing benefit claims;
• Ensure that CPP and Old Age Security monthly payments are not clawed back from CERB payments;
• Implement an income replacement initiative for older workers in the harvesting and processing sectors;
• Implement a full income replacement program for those who don’t quality for EI;
• Cover the full cost of COVID-19 related requirements for the fishery and other food processors;
• Institute mortgage and loan deferrals for the fishing sector in 2020.

Please read my detailed request for Federal Government assistance to the fishing industry amid COVID-19 that I forwarded to @FishOceansCAN several weeks ago.https://t.co/tmxXyQvoio pic.twitter.com/lSZW6ZSXnq

— Gerry Byrne (@Gerry_Byrne) May 13, 2020