A demonstration is planned in Corner Brook today to protest the federal government’s decision to allocate the lion’s share of redfish quotas in the Gulf of St. Lawrence to the offshore fleet based in Nova Scotia.

There were high hopes that the fishery could be the solution to pressures faced by inshore shrimp harvesters in the Gulf who have seen a steady cut in quotas.

But that was not to be.

Corner Brook MHA Gerry Byrne came out swinging yesterday accusing Ottawa of “moral dishonesty” in its approach to the fishery, reopened for the first time in three decades.

Byrne says the fleet and processing capacity already exists, but instead the federal government is involved in building a new offshore fleet with taxpayers dollars.

FFAW President Greg Pretty says “they’re robbing from workers to give to the rich.” He wants to hear from local MPs.

“It’s time from them to come out in front” says Pretty “about this travesty…all brought on, not because of the principles of resource or adjacency, but because somebody interfered.”