A long-time advocate for inshore enterprise owners is accusing the provincial fisheries minister of not being on the ball ahead of the 2024 snow crab fishery, which is only two-and-a-half months away.

Ryan Cleary, who recently stepped down as the Executive Director of SEA-NL, is now focusing his efforts on the creation of a fisheries co-op for local enterprise owners.

He expected a decision from Minister Elvis Loveless on new fish processing licences, and the possible lifting of a cap on independent local processors, before Christmas but there’s been no word to-date.

“The season is just about two months away…but we don’t know who the processing players are yet for the 2024 season. From our perspective, that is not on the ball.”

Cleary says Loveless “didn’t give a second thought” in 2020 to Royal Greenland moving in as the “largest fish processor in the land.”

Cleary understands the province has to do its due diligence, but “they also have to be on the ball.”