According to community chief the fish is still there and still fishermen worked six-to-seven days a week. He appealed the young generation to take this occupation and return to their root. Morriseau said the commercial fishing industry collapsed in his community in the late 1980s due to the cut of a commercial fishing subsidy for equipment and freight costs and a low return on the catch.
He also said that there are fishermen who maintained the industry for a while, but as time went by more people kept dropping out. Morriseau wants the commercial fishing subsidy to be reinstated, noting he felt fortunate to be involved in the industry. During his visit to Weagamow, Liberal MP Carolyn Bennett encouraged Morriseau’s commercial fishing vision.
Bennett said that the community could have a viable commercial fishery if they had the right to sell their fish directly to markets in the south such as high-end restaurants in urban centres. The Freshwater Fish Marketing Corporation was established in 1969 to purchase, process and market all freshwater fish caught for commercial sale in northwestern Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and the Northwest Territories.
In it annual federal budget the amount of $33.5 million being kept for spending to support First Nations commercial fishing. It is aimed at initiatives in the Pacific region under the Pacific Integrated Commercial Fishing Initiative and for the Mik’maq and Maliseet First Nations in Atlantic Canada and Quebec affected by the Marshall decision under the Atlantic Integrated Commercial Fisheries Initiatives.
