It is fact that the loan programme is a hit among fishermen on the south of P.E.I. The fishermen faced the double challenge of declining catches and rising input costs for the past several seasons. This programme is geared to both fall and spring fishermen on the Island’s south shore. For the fall fishery the province and the P.E.I. Fishermen’s Association have been trying to convince Ottawa to institute a licence rationalization programme.
Allan Campbell, Fisheries, Aquaculture and Rural Development Minister, told that 136 loans have been approved so far with another 19 still pending at the P.E.I. Lending Agency. Campbell informed that there’s been a total of approximately $18 million in consolidated fishermen’s debt to help deal with the situation in the Northumberland Strait. According to him the loan programme is unique of its kind in the country and the challenge with implementing any new program is you don’t have anything to go on from the past.
Campbell also explained that the previous Conservative government made a decision to address this problem in the Northumberland Strait through a debt mediation programme. That programme helped about 30 fishermen. But this time the taker of this programme are many and the authority has to evaluate the programme to make it beneficial for every one, said Campbell.
