By Rochelle Baker Local Journalism Initiative Reporter A parliamentary committee investigating whether corporations and foreign owners have a stranglehold on Canadian fisheries is experiencing a serious case of deja vu. Witnesses speaking about the dire straits faced by commercial fish harvesters and coastal communities on the West Coast are raising the same issues first presented to the Standing Committee of Fisheries and Oceans (FOPO) starting in 2018. Independent operators, First Nations and young fishers are being squeezed out by skyrocketing prices for commercial fishing licences and quota, a set share of the allowable catch, witnesses told the committee at ongoing meetings starting May 8. The result is a concentration of industry control and profit in the hands of corporations, processors, foreign and domestic investors, or retired harvesters, FOPO heard. On…
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