Joy Thorkelson, city councillor and United Fishermen and Allied Workers’ Union spokesperson, told that this year will be the least amount of money floating around in the community in a long, long time at Prince Rupert. He was talking about the impact of the poor commercial fishing season in 2008. Thorkelson made the comments during the August 18 council meeting, and said that the city should brace itself for a rough winter.
She explained that the community has had a run of about 2.8 million and the commercial sector has only had 500,000 pieces caught. She noted that the canneries have made it clear that they will move their operations if they cannot access Canadian fish and have to import fish to process from Alaska, Thorkelson said there could be more immediate impacts on the community.
She warned that there might be a mass exodus of people leaving Prince Rupert because the only other option is to go on welfare. Thorkelson will work with city staff to outline their concerns about homelessness for a Union of British Columbia Municipalities policy paper, but she encouraged council to meet and discuss what can be done about the poverty issue locally.
