CCN Back Issues Vol 6 Issue 5.

Look out over the nearest harbour. We all think of such areas as public places. Canada has sovereignty over the sea to our 200-mile limit, and the federal government holds and manages them as a public trust.

Well, not quite, so it seems. Yes, we can all sail our boats along the surface of the water, so long as we obey federal regulations regarding navigation. But what of the seabed beneath us? It turns out that Transport Canada is in the process of divesting itself of ownership of thirteen harbour beds across the province. (The reasons these specific harbours are targeted are tied to obscure jurisdictional histories.) On the block are harbour beds at Annapolis Royal, Bridgewater, Digby, Hantsport, Liverpool, Lunenburg, Parrsboro, Pictou, Pugwash, Shelburne, the Strait of Canso, Sydney, and Yarmouth. They are among hundreds of harbour beds Ottawa wants to rid itself of across the country.

Transport Canada has a web page (www.tc.gc.ca/PortPrograms/en/Menu.htm), where, under the heading "Moving Ahead with Port Transfers," is the following text:

In accordance with the federal government's National Marine Policy, Transport Canada is transferring ownership of its regional/local ports to local interests. If you're interested in taking over any of the more than 200 sites across Canada that are set to be transferred, we're interested too.

Here's what Transport Canada's Public Ports and Public Port Facility Regulations stipulate. The "bed(s) of the navigable waters" are first to be offered to other federal departments or agencies. If there are no takers at that level, Transport Canada will enter into negotiations with the province. If the province doesn't want responsibility, the harbour beds will then be made available to "local interest groups."

Bridgewater Mayor Ernie Bolivar and the rest of Town Council were very concerned when they got wind of Transport Canada's plans to sell the harbour bed along a nine-mile stretch of the LaHave River (from Old Bridge Street to Bear Hill, near Pleasantville). In a February 14 letter to Transport Canada, Mayor Bolivar wrote: "The LaHave River is considered a major, long-term, important resource to the area, and Council for the Town of Bridgewater strongly objects to the possibility of the river being controlled by some local interest group or private sector. We feel the jurisdiction for the river must stay in the public domain."

Warden Jack Wentzell of the Municipality of the District of Lunenburg voiced his own concerns to Transport Canada in a February 19 letter. His worry was that "waterways that have been in the public domain with free and unfettered access for generations may be lost, at least in part, to private sector interests who would restrict access or impose fees/moorage charges or otherwise restrict public use and access to traditional waterways."

In an effort to get to the bottom of what this will all mean for Bridgewater in particular, Town Council asked Mary Taylor of Transport Canada's Port Corporations and Port Property Division in Ottawa to appear before it in March. What they heard was not at all music to their ears. It seems that no other federal agency has expressed interest in the bed of the LaHave. Apparently, there have been some discussions between Transport Canada and the province (telephone enquiries indicate that the provincial Department of Natural Resources is engaged in some dialogue with Ottawa on the matter), but it is very unlikely that the province would want to take responsibility. So, this will likely see control of Bridgewater's harbour bed being offered to "local interest groups."

Mayor Bolivar has been told that "local interest groups" includes municipalities, but has no idea of what kind of money Transport Canada is talking about. "In a town like Bridgewater," he says, "the river has to be for everybody. But, with this plan of Transport Canada's, we are not even sure if Bridgewater can afford the price of its own riverbed. The riverbed has to stay in the public domain."

Mary Taylor's response to questions from Town Council at the March meeting indicate that some drastic changes are going to happen along the LaHave River and elsewhere along our coast if the proposed changes in ownership go through. You have a private wharf along the shore? It encroaches on the harbour bed, so be prepared to pay for the privilege. Have a mooring for your boat? It encroaches on the riverbed, so be prepared to pay for the privilege.

If you fish lobster or any other species whose harvesting involves putting gear on the seabed in any of Transport Canada's designated areas, you should be nervous. The fact that Mary Taylor referred to these areas as "land covered by water" before Bridgewater Town Council might be an indication of just what sort of property rights Ottawa is envisioning that any new owner might acquire with purchase of the harbour bed.

The time line of this divestiture process is uncertain at this point. Negotiations between the province and Transport Canada could drag on for a considerable period, as there are many complex jurisdictional legalities involved. However, a Transport Canada response to Mayor Bolivar's letter of February 14 stated that any new buyer of the harbour bed "would have the same rights and obligations of any property owner."

How much will any potential buyer have to pay for the "property" of these various harbours? At this point, nobody knows. How much will a wharf or mooring owner be charged for the privilege? At this point, nobody knows. What, if anything, will it cost to fish where you've always fished? At this point, nobody knows.

That seems to be the standard answer to all aspects of this divestiture to private interests of what Canadians have always considered a public resource: "At this point, nobody knows." But, at least along the province's South Shore, folks are not taking things lying down. A resolution on the matter will be put before municipal councils in the towns of Bridgewater and Lunenburg, and in the counties of Lunenburg and Queens, in late April. It will ask the federal Ministry of Transport to scrap its divestiture plans regarding harbour beds, or, at the least, to assure that they are maintained in the public domain. Swift passage by all the municipalities concerned seems very likely. What positive results might follow such passage are far from certain.

Look out again over the nearest harbour. Is it a harbour about to be taken from all of us?

Community Problems, Community Solutions

Hants County has a bit of an identity problem. Administratively, it is carved up sort of the way a Christmas turkey looks two days after Boxing Day. There are the towns of Windsor and Hantsport, as well as the municipalities of East and West Hants. Mount Uniacke, which, as anyone travelling from Halifax to Windsor can tell you, is in the western part of the County, is actually in East Hants.

If you live in Hants County and are looking for work, there are three different offices of Human Resources Development Canada that you might be directed to. And two of them aren't even in Hants County. To look up phone numbers in Hants County, you'll need three different phone books. Two different school boards and health districts cover the County. If you live in Elmsdale, "going to town" refers to Halifax. In Maitland, it refers to Truro, while in Walton, it means somebody is going to Windsor.

So, who do you go see when you want to know some of the things happening around Hants County? It would be hard to do better than to talk to Gordon Hall, who I met at the offices of the Hants Regional Development Authority (RDA) in Enfield. Gordon works for the Acadia Centre for Small Business and Entrepreneurship, which has been contracted by the Hants RDA to undertake Community Asset Mapping (CAM) in the County, with funding provided by Human Resources Development Canada. CAM involves training interviewers who then go out into the community and conduct hundreds of interviews. The idea is to discover the wide variety of talents and interests people in the community have, in a broad range of areas–from carpentry and plumbing skills to dancing and photography.

"CAM isn't quite community economic development," Gordon tells me, "but it provides a level of information communities haven't had before, and that information might be used to create development."

"Say, for example, I am really into fly tying," Gordon continues. "CAM might uncover the fact that there are ten other people in the area who share the same interest. Well, we might then decide to get together and somehow create an enterprise together involving fly tying. Or, we might not: it's entirely up to the people themselves, but having the information, and sharing it, is a first step in making entrepreneurship possible."

When I ask Gordon just what "entrepreneurship" is, he doesn't hesitate in his response. "Entrepreneurship happens when a person or people gather information to make an informed decision that involves some risk, and who are then prepared to live with the consequences of that decision," he tells me. "An entrepreneur need not even be a business person or a capitalist. Entrepreneurship is much broader than that. Whole communities can be entrepreneurial, but they need to be able to make an informed decision. And that's why CAM is so important. It lets communities know what they have, rather than what they lack. And, it also helps identify the 'movers and shakers' in a community."

Gordon then proceeds to tell me about some of those "movers and shakers," and I hit the County's highways and back roads to find a few of them.

Jennifer Melanson and three other young people–Evelyn Jones, Steve Law, and Raghu Lokanathan–operate SunRoot Farm, just outside Kennetcook. Over the past two years they've established a market garden and a Community Shared Agriculture (CSA) program there. SunRoot Farm is certified as organic by the Nova Scotia Organic Growers' Association.

Though she was raised on the South Mountain, Jennifer went away to school in Ontario, where she and her partners learned about CSA, a way of farming that works to restore and underline the links between food, farming, and consumers.

"CSA originated in Japan," Jennifer says. "And spread to the United States in the 1980s. Today, there are about 1,000 CSA farms in North America, but only a handful so far in Nova Scotia."

Here's how CSA works at SunRoot Farm. Each spring, consumers buy shares in the farm's yearly harvest. This allows SunRoot's young farmers to buy seed and other supplies without involving a bank. This guaranteed market benefits the farmers, who are then able to more accurately plan the growing season to minimize waste, ensuring a viable farm business. Consumers get fresh, affordable, organically grown food, as well as a connection to the land and people producing the food. Buying food from a CSA farm supports the local community and reduces the environmental impacts of the food system by cutting down on packaging and transportation costs.

A typical weekly CSA share in August includes turnip, kale, swiss chard, beets, potatoes, lettuce, broccoli, garlic, peas, salad mix, squash, sprouts, cabbage, and radishes. As well, the farmers produce a newsletter that explains the contents of what's been delivered and includes suggested recipes. Weekly deliveries are made from June until October in both the Windsor and Dartmouth areas. SunRoot also sells organic produce during this period at Alderney Farmers' Market in Dartmouth.

Along with their commercial CSA operation, SunRoot Farm is also involved in another project guided by the same CSA principles. "Growing Bread Into Baskets" is a pilot project supported by the provincial Department of Community Services that involves people in the Kennetcook area who are on social assistance. Last year fifteen families (about 40 people in all, including some with special needs) took part by planting, weeding, and harvesting organic produce.

"The farming was an important part of this pilot project," Jennifer says, "but there was a lot more to it than just that. People took part in the decisions made, attended information sessions about organic agriculture, and learned about canning to preserve produce. But perhaps most important, many of the people increased their self-esteem. Many people on social assistance are isolated, because of their fixed incomes and a lack of transportation options. 'Growing Food Into Baskets' allowed everyone the chance to work together, and to share ideas, recipes, abilities, and laughter on a regular basis. The increased self-confidence and social ease was very satisfying for everyone."

The pilot project also involved children's activities, and there are efforts being made to start a literacy group in the Kennetcook area as a result of last year's activities at SunRoot Farm. Jennifer and her farming partners recently applied to Community Services to expand the "Growing Bread Into Baskets" program this summer. If the success of the 2000 program is any yardstick to go on, there will be more food growing into more baskets this year at SunRoot Farm.

Burncoat Head, on the south shore of beautiful Minas Basin, has one great claim to fame: it is the site of the highest tides ever recorded, anywhere. I had known this little bit of Nova Scotia trivia for years, but it had also been years since I'd been around the Burncoat Head "loop." So the appearance there of Burncoat Head Park, and of Burncoat Light was new to me. Their presence there today owes much to Tennecape residents Charlie and Charlene McCulloch. I dropped in on Charlie at Wood'n'Lace Crafts and Antiques in nearby Noel.

Like generations of kids along this shore, when Charlie was a youngster growing up, there was little to hold him here once school was over. "I remember paying someone about two bucks for a one-way lift to Halifax," Charlie remembers. He began working in the construction business there, but, as with many who move away, the lure of returning home was strong in him. After meeting and marrying Charlene, who is originally from Cape Breton, in 1972, they moved to Nine Mile River in the mid-'70s, where Charlie ran a garage. In 1983, they bought a home in Tennecape, and Charlie was living back on the shore, though he still had to commute to Nine Mile River. Then, in the early '90s, the McCullochs bought two buildings in Noel. Charlie's return to the shore was complete. Today, he works as a mechanic in one of the couple's two buildings, while Charlene runs the craft and antique store next door.

Both Charlie and Charlene have long been active in the East Hants Tourism Association (EHTA) . "Things like developing Burncoat Head Park are important. They draw people to the communities along this shore," Charlie tells me. "Some people take the attitude that things are fine as they are, that we don't need or want more tourism. But, if we don't have ways of keeping people working in our communities, where will it lead? The only way to keep our schools and post offices open is to have people working and spending their money here. A lot of people have to travel to Halifax for work, and, more likely than not, they will pick up their groceries at Sobey's in Sackville on the way home. If they waited and got their groceries at Foodland in Kennetcook, it would mean more people working in our communities."

For many years, there was a lighthouse at Burncoat Head, but it was burned in 1972. Then in 1992, the EHTA developed the idea of Burncoat Head Park. "The EHTA has always had a good relationship with the Municipality," Charlie says, "and so, almost right away, we were given responsibility for managing the property. We created the Burncoat Park Committee as a sub-committee of the EHTA."

"In 1994, we got $37,000 from the province to build a replica of the old Burncoat Light," Charlie explains. "It cost us about $25,000 for a full-scale reproduction that looks historically accurate from the outside. The rest of the money went for interpretive signs, fencing, walkways, and the like."

"The EHTA has developed a strategic plan to promote tourism in this area," Charlie tells me. "It's one of the important ways we can sustain and grow our communities here." Burncoat Head Park is a step forward in that direction.

Maurice Rees works for the Dartmouth-based Nova Scotia Business Journal, and he also teaches Marketing and Communications at the Atlantic CED Institute in Halifax. He lives in Maitland, and, like Charlie McCulloch, he is active in the EHTA. He is a past Chair of the Hants RDA and now serves as President of the East Hants Historical Society, which operates the East Hants Historical Museum in nearby Lower Selma in the summertime. He describes the south shore of Minas Basin as the "Timbits of Hants County."

"We are sort of the hole in the doughnut here," Maurice explains. "All the infrastructure is on the urban perimeters of Halifax, Truro, and Windsor. People from Windsor, or from Elmsdale, simply don't come here, even though we are not that far away. We have to get people off the main highways. Hants County is an undiscovered paradise, but it has no reputation. This is an advantage, because it means we have no negatives to overcome."

Maurice believes that better signage on the County's main highways, better roads, and better health infrastructure will all help bring more people to our smaller communities. But there are other tools that can and must be used.

"I'm a big fan of Nova Scotia's Community Economic Development Investment Funds (CEDIFs) ," he tells me as we sit comfortably is his lovingly restored 1847 farmhouse. "They allow people to invest in small communities while protecting a full 80 percent of the investment through tax regulations. They are starting to catch on, partly because many successful executives in Halifax are only one, or two, or maybe three generations removed from a small Nova Scotia community. People involved in community economic development should be going directly to those people and say 'Hey you're from the Noel Shore: here's a local enterprise you should invest in. And, at the same time, you benefit your community.'"

"The tools to redevelop rural life are there," Maurice believes. "But local people must be made aware of them, and learn how to use them. Governments and RDAs have a responsibility to ensure that community groups, and entrepreneurial residents, are informed about all the tools at their disposal."

The Lower Selma Museum is a valuable genealogical storehouse, and it also celebrates the area's farming and shipbuilding heritage. "In 1999, we needed a new roof," Maurice says. "And we knew that a bundle of shingles costs $16. So, we went door to door and raised "$16 bites"–including an anonymous donation of $500–and we raised enough locally to leverage some provincial funding. We got our new roof." Another community problem, solved by a community solution.

There are a lot of different communities in Hants County, some looking in one direction, some in another. But, all across the County, there are people busy making their community a better place to visit, and a better place to live. And, after all, that's really not so different than anywhere else in Nova Scotia.

To contact SunRoot Farm, phone 632-2497, or e-mail sunroot@ns.sympatico.ca. To find out more about CED Investment Funds, call 893-6190. To contact the Hants RDA, call 883-3338.

Nova Scotia Shines Light on Lighthouse Day 2001

Nova Scotia's lights and lightkeepers have guided sailors, fishermen, and small boat operators through storms and safely back to port almost as long as there have been ships.

Today, all our lighthouses have been automated, or have been replaced by global positioning satellite systems. Many more of our beacons are in danger of closing. Many in government believe that lighthouses are no longer navigational necessities–but, it all depends on who you're talking to.

Fishermen and recreational boaters continue to use lighthouses to guide them safely home. Lights are also considered treasures that tie those of us on land to the sea and to the past.

In honour of these historic sites and vital navigational aids, Nova Scotia is getting ready to celebrate Lighthouse Day on May 26. The Coastal Communities Network, in partnership with the Nova Scotia Preservation Society and the Lighthouse Day Committee, are helping to plan this special day. Financial support is being provided through Human Resources Development Canada.

Tune into ATV's Breakfast Television on May 24 for special Lighthouse Day guests, including folk singers and even a culinary surprise!

Celebrations will begin with a grand kickoff to Lighthouse Day on May 25 at Chebucto Head Light. We invite everyone to join us for a day full of live entertainment, a codfish cake breakfast, lighthouse displays, contests, story telling, dancing, and more.

The Maritime Museum of the Atlantic in Halifax will host a variety of activities on Lighthouse Day, including special tours, displays, a lighthouse art contest, a lighthouse quiz, and foghorn demonstrations. For more details, phone the Museum at 424-7490 or consult the Lighthouse Day website (see below for site address).

We've already heard from several lighthouse committees and community groups planning celebrations for May 26, including groups in River Bourgeois, Louisbourg, Fort Point, and Terence Bay. But, we haven't heard from all of you. If you are planning to celebrate Lighthouse Day, we want to hear about it! If you haven't decided how you want to celebrate Lighthouse Day, we want to help you.

We encourage you to take part in our Lighthouse Day contests, including a drawing contest, a poetry contest, and an amateur lighthouse photography contest.

Staples/Business Depot is our first corporate sponsor, but we are actively seeking more support from various businesses and groups around the province.

For information on events, contests and ideas about how you can get involved in Lighthouse Day, visit our web site at www.coastalcommunities.ns.ca and click on the "Celebrate Lighthouse Day" link.

We hope Lighthouse Day will strengthen public awareness about the importance of our lights and encourage lighthouse preservation. Join in the festivities, or let us help you plan your own celebration. Let's make May 26 a very special day. Keep checking our web site and local newspapers for event details.

"Tea You Could Trot a Mouse On"

Sometimes an expression just sticks with you. "Tea you could trot a mouse on" did that with me. It brought to mind big country kitchens full of friends and neighbours, hands wrapped around endless cups of strongly-brewed tea as they tell stories, laugh, argue, and laugh again.

When it came time to name the Women for Economic Equality (WEE) Society's learning series on community-based economic development (CED), "Tea you could trot a mouse on" seemed to fit. CED is about the work friends and neighbours do around those kitchen tables as they share their ideas, make plans, and lend each other a helping hand. It's about the strength of our communities and how they sustain us through good times and bad.

With the publication of Tea You Could Trot a Mouse On, we have a women-positive, plain-language guide to the elements of CED. It consists of fourteen topic areas, including skill sets on leadership, facilitating, bookkeeping, formal meetings, developing networks, and forging partnerships. Within these skills sets, readers can also find important information on such topics as problem solving, consensus building, and conflict resolution. It also has sections on building an organization, writing funding proposals, creating public relations materials, reading financial statements, and finding alternative ways to fund business start-ups. Still other sections explain how cooperatives work and the basics to starting a small business.

Although it was written as a self-help guide, Tea You Could Trot a Mouse On also includes notes for facilitators. The task of the facilitator is to draw upon the many experiences of community people, thus adding greatly to the information contained in the booklet. It is women-positive because the WEE Society recognizes that the work women do in our communities is invaluable. It doesn't mean that the series is written for women only, but the examples underline the community-building work women do in their daily lives.

Tea You Could Trot a Mouse On was created with financial support from the National Literacy Secretariat. The Women's Network PEI, and the Bay St. George Women's Council of Newfoundland co-sponsored the project with the WEE Society. Additional support came through an advisory committee composed of the three co-sponsors and representatives from the Nova Scotia Department of Education, the Canadian Council on Learning Opportunities for Women, and Frontier College.

The booklet came about through the efforts of more than 200 women from communities in Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland. Reviewers of the materials reflected the diversity of our communities and included women living on low income, First Nations, African-Canadians, Acadians, and newcomers to the region. The age range spanned six decades, and groups were drawn from urban centres, small towns, and from farming and fishing communities.

"It has been great to be a partner in this project," says Laurie Ann McCardle, Executive Director of Women's Network PEI. "The women involved learned so much from the experience. We're already designing a new project where we plan to use the series with a range of women in Prince Edward Island. It's so exciting!"

Tea You Can Trot a Mouse On: The Elements of CED was written from a rural, home-based office. Its first editors were those 200 community women from three Atlantic provinces. The final editing was done by a rural woman from her home-based office. The artwork was created and the text was designed by two other rural women working from their home-based offices. In the end, it is a testament to the creative forces of women in our communities, as they work, volunteer, raise their families, and support each other.

To learn more about this learning series or to buy a copy of it, go to the WEE Society's web site at www.womenscednet.ns.ca. You can also contact Barbara Parker by telephone at (902) 857-1061.

The Coastal Communities Network (CCN) held its Annual General Meeting at Tatamagouche Centre this past April 6-8. In our upcoming July/August issue, there will be lots of information about what took place there, as well as a special thanks to our AGM sponsors. Also, there will be an article highlighting the inspiring works of the winners and finalists of CCN's 2001 Proud Community Awards.

Here, just for fun, we challenge you with highlights of our 2001 Great Nova Scotia Trivia contest, which was presented by Quizmaster Scott Milsom in an atmosphere of light-hearted fun on the evening of Saturday, April 7.

The 2001 Great Nova Scotia Trivia Contest

One Big "Thank You"!!!!

In the January/February issue of Coastal Communities News, we asked readers to help support the magazine through a financial contribution. The Coastal Communities Network would like to thank the following people for their generosity:

Kathryn Archibald, Eric Atkinson, Black Business Development, Chris Bryant, Gary Hopkins, Harvey Leonce Huskins, Inverness County Recreation/Tourism Department, Jim Lotz, Heather Mair, Doug Meggison, Municipality of Richmond County, Betty Petterson, Robert V. Potter, Praxis Research & Consulting, Sally Ravindra, Mac Schrader, Peter Stoffer, Mary Taylor, Francine S. Wallace, and all those who chose to donate anonymously.

Who We Are: Don't Let Them Define You Down

Baseball aside, I don't watch a lot of network television, but I do often try to catch The National on CBC-TV. There's usually not much on any of the other stations that I want to watch for a fleeting 120 seconds, so when an ad comes on, my mind tends to tune out the screen and to wander – who knows where, I never do – aimlessly for a couple minutes. Car ads are, after all, pretty mindless fluff, as are almost all of the ad hacks' wares. But one night recently, I heard something in the course of an ad that set my teeth a bit on edge. I wasn't sure why, because my mind had tuned out as soon as anchor Peter Mansbridge came in with his "We'll-be-back-right-after-this" bit. So, when the same ad interrupted Peter a few nights later, I decided to play closer attention.

It was a pitch for Conrad Black's National Post. Now, the Post, by its mere mention, can sometimes get my goat – with its Toronto-based pretensions to being "national" and its unending worship of all things market generated. But, there are lots of things out there that trumpet or reflect similar messages, and it wasn't the fact that it was a Post ad. No, it was the way it was being sold. The ad promoted six-month subscriptions to the Post by offering six movie tickets to people who took them up on the offer. That's fair enough. But then, there was a kicker: apparently, there would be some draw or other selection process among these new readers and, to quote directly from the ad, "You could be immortalized through a walk-on part in a new feature film!"

I checked my teeth again, and, sure enough, they were on edge, big time. I turned Peter down and set to a bit of thinking. What bothered me most about the ad was that its underlying assumptions take power away from people, and from our communities. In coastal and rural communities I visit all across Nova Scotia, people are known for how they relate to their neighbours, for the size of their hearts, and for the goodness of their works. When exceptional people pass away, they are remembered – "immortalized," if you will – by the active memories of people who live on in their communities. That's as it should be.

As long as there has been a film industry, there have been people who have wanted to read about the latest goings-on of the current Hollywood heartthrobs. But over the past several years, it seems that our media are doling out more and more of it. Television shows like Entertainment Tonight present the latest "news" to audiences of millions. Our local newspapers fill page after page with similar "news" of the rich and famous. ( The Chronicle-Herald is guilty of this, but The Daily News is far worse.) But, when Peter tells us on The National about a military conflict somewhere, a natural calamity, or a project that is doing a bit of good in some corner of the world, he tells us these things – and they are meaningful to us – because they have a real effect on real people. When he tells us about taxes being raised or lowered, or about local election results, he is telling us something that might directly touch our own lives. In contrast, the Hollywood "news," no matter how outrageous someone's behaviour may or may not be, will never have the slightest bearing on the course of the lives of people in our communities.

The Post's offer of "immortality" is part and parcel of the increasing value our society places on celebrity. This emphasis on celebrity underlines and widens the gap between "us" and "them." The Post's lucky winner will appear somewhere in the background of a scene that will no doubt have its focus on one of the stars. The ad's underlying assumption is that "they" are immortal, but that, unless you are one very lucky reader of the National Post, you are not. That is not as it should be.

So, I've decided, more firmly than ever, that I'll never spend time and effort to hear the latest about the likes of Puff Daddy or Britney Spears. I'll not buy into a way of thinking where "immortality" comes from somewhere else. Instead, I'll keep trying to learn more about the coastal and rural communities across this province, where people are judged by who they are and what they do. And I'll get my news from Peter Mansbridge, from the radio, from the internet, and from newspapers. But not likely from the National Post.

Atlantic Fisheries Policy Review: Our Future on the Line

The federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) has released a discussion paper, The Management of Fisheries on Canada's Atlantic Coast, as the first step in its wholesale review of fisheries management policy in Atlantic Canada.

This Atlantic Fisheries Policy Review has the potential to change the way Atlantic Canada's fisheries are managed. Its purpose is to consolidate existing policies, clarify policy priorities, and commit DFO to a new set of guiding principles. DFO is seeking public input from Atlantic Canadians by calling for comments on the discussion paper and has already held public meetings in every province and territory on our Atlantic coast. If you or your organization were not able to attend the DFO meetings, it is still possible to give your input using e-mail, fax, or post.

Will this review affect Nova Scotia's coastal communities? It sure will. This policy process is about how the fisheries will be managed for years to come, and it has major implications for the future viability and sustainability of our fishing communities. This is an opportunity for inshore fisheries organizations, as well as for any other organizations interested in the future of our coastal communities, to tell the federal government what kind of fisheries we would like to see in the future.

What sort of things have CCN member organizations been telling DFO? A number of common themes have emerged from submissions already made by inshore fisheries organizations, and by environmental and community groups. These include:

• Privatization. Any review of federal fisheries policies must address the existing policy of privatization of the resource through Individual Transferable Quotas and Enterprise Allocations. There must be a full public debate, as recommended by the Senate Fisheries Committee's report, Privatization and Quota Licencing in Canada's Fisheries , issued in December of 1998;

• Fleet Separation . The Atlantic Fisheries Policy Review must seriously address the erosion of inshore owner-operator fleets and the growing corporatization of many fisheries. A clear fleet-separation policy is essential to the sustainability and viability of Nova Scotia's coastal communities;

• Community-Based Management . Any new policy must recognize community-based management as an important option for the self-governance of inshore fisheries.

To learn more about what's already been submitted, check the website of the Canadian Council of Professional Fish Harvesters at www.ccpfh-ccpp.org/, where a number of briefs by CCN member organizations have been posted.

How can your community organization be heard? The best way is to submit a brief, however short, before the deadline of May 31, 2001. You can make your voice heard through any of the following means:

Copies of The Management of Fisheries on Canada's Atlantic Coast are available by phoning 1-866-233-6676, or the document can be viewed on-line at www.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/afpr-rppa.

Now is the time for people in our coastal communities to have their voices heard, as we build the fisheries of the 21st century.

Sustainable Fisheries, Sustainable Communities

One of the Coastal Communities Network's purposes is to provide a forum for discussion of ideas that affect coastal and rural Nova Scotia. Although the following comes from outside the province, it concerns the fishery, which is central to many of our coastal towns and villages. We present these views here in hope of generating further productive discussion in this area.

If the idea of sustainable development is going to be anything more than an idea, a sort of interesting possibility for community development workers and like-minded academics to talk about, we have to start applying it, putting the principles into action. And we have to start doing this, not so much at the government level, but at the community level, in the communities all across the region where we live and work.

Now that's a proposition that almost demands the response, "Well, okay, but what are we actually going to do and how are we going to go about it?" Fair enough. The answers are going to vary from community to community and from situation to situation. The answers will have to vary: if sustainable development is going to mean anything worthwhile, it has to mean community control of the process. But though the details will and should vary from community to community, the process should never be controlled from outside and imposed on local communities.

Let's be clear about this: community "consultation," community "input into decision making," are not enough. If communities are to be sustainable, the process has to happen from within. Provincial and federal governments, multinational corporations, pressure groups: all can and will advise, assist, and coerce. Fine. They should be involved, but the moment these outside forces begin to control the development of the community, the community ceases to be sustainable.

An absolutely prime and awful example of what happens to communities when they don't have control of their development can be taken from the Atlantic groundfishery. Now, I probably shouldn't be writing about the Atlantic groundfishery at all. I was born, brought up in, and still live in Carleton County, New Brunswick, about as far from the coast as you can get in this region. I've never worked in the fishery: my closest experience with it, in fact, is buying, cooking, and eating fish. But writing about things I have no experience with has never held me back yet, so let me try to imagine how the Atlantic fishery and the region's fishing communities could become sustainable.

I won't review the history of mistakes and mis-management, both environmental and economic, that have characterized the fishery: I'll assume most of us agree that past policy and practice have not led to a sustainable fishery and sustainable fishing communities. Quite the reverse, in fact. Many species are depleted. Some, like Atlantic salmon in most of the region, have fallen to the point of commercial non-viability. (I deliberately choose not to use cod as an example, as there remains a possibility that cod may be able to recover as a commercially-fished species – but nobody seriously believes that Atlantic salmon will ever do so). General ocean pollution and pollution of specific fishing grounds have both become serious problems. In community after community, fishing jobs have vanished and fish plants have closed. The present groundfishery is not sustainable. Neither are the fishing communities. The only people who have a strong vested interest in making fishing communities sustainable are the people who live in them. For any fishing community to be sustainable it must have, at a minimum, access to fish. Fish to catch. Fish to process. Fish to sell. There must be fish available (not depleted through environmental damage and overfishing), and there must be fish available to the community (not all being caught or controlled by somebody else). This is such a simple and obvious proposition that it is hard to see why it isn't apparent to the politicians and bureaucrats who set fishery policy in Canada.

Yet if it is, they must believe that it bears intolerable political consequences. At present the availability of fish is unpredictable from year to year. Quotas depend at least as much on politics as on science, and neither is a particularly reliable guide to sustainability of fish stocks. And the availability of fish to any given community is largely dependent on the economic whims and competence of commercial fish processing companies not based in the community.

So what can communities do about this? Well, without acknowledging that quotas are necessarily a good system – but recognizing that they are the current system, at least when it comes to groundfish – then what communities need is quota. The present policy of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans is to make quotas transferable, saleable from one holder to another. Why can't fishing communities start buying the damned things? There are lots of fish companies, which hold most of the quota, whining about how much money they lose, looking for government bailouts, and going bankrupt. Dangle some cash in front of them, and some will be only-too-ready to sell their quotas.

Just how communities will choose to buy, own, and manage their quotas will vary from place to place. But to be truly sustainable, the quota will have to be controlled by the community – not by an individual, or a family, or a private company in the community – by the community itself. Through a municipal government, perhaps, or a community development corporation, or a community co-op.

Where will the money come from? Through the sale of shares, or the issuing of bonds, or borrowing, or local taxes: from any of the sources that municipal governments and crown corporations and co-ops are able to tap when they require capital investment funds. A fishing community that owns its own quota won't automatically go about managing it in the most sustainable manner possible: methods and techniques will have to evolve, trade-offs will be made, and some communities will be better at it than others. But, for a fishing community, getting control of that quota is the first step toward sustainability. Without that control, the road runs away from the community, and it's downhill all the way.

Coastal Communities News is published bi-monthly by the Coastal Communities Network, a non-profit society registered in the province of Nova Scotia.

Coastal Communities News is made possible by the generous efforts of many volunteers, and by financial contributions from Human Resources Development Canada, and by donations and in-kind contributions from the Nova Scotia Department of Education and Culture, as well as from member groups and organizations.

We welcome all articles and submissions, from individuals and groups, with content in keeping with the role and nature of this magazine. We reserve the right to edit all submissions. Except where additional credit has been given, all articles are prepared by the Editor and Editorial Board.

Our Mission Statement

The Coastal Communities Network is a volunteer association of organizations whose mission is to provide a forum to encourage dialogue, share information, and create strategies and actions that promote the survival and development of Nova Scotia's coastal and rural communities.

"A Large Voice for Small Communities"

CCN is made up of organizations rooted in Nova Scotia's coastal and rural communities, and it is the diversity of its membership that gives it strength. Your organization, and your community, can help CCN determine its direction and strengthen its voice still further. Join the Coastal Communities Network today.

— by participating in regular monthly meetings of the CCN membership. These are held in Truro (usually on the first Tuesday of each month), and allow representatives from member organizations to review what is happening in coastal communities across the province, plan actions on issues of common concern, and review progress on CCN-sponsored projects;

— by getting on our mailing list to receive regular copies of Coastal Communities News. Send us your name and address by mail or fax, or call us directly;

— by contributing written articles to Coastal Communities News, and so letting everyone know what's happening in your community;

— by taking part in CCN workshops and information sessions. Special events like this are held on topics of importance to coastal communities (for example, community economic development, co- management in the fishery, etc);

— by inquiring about CCN's resource library, which includes information, reports, and studies on topics that affect the future and sustainability of coastal communities.

CCN Coordinator:
PO Box 1613
Pictou, N.S. B0K 1H0
Phone:(902)485-4754 Fax:(902)445-7134
e-mail:coastalnet@ns.sympatico.ca

CCN Communications Office:
Phone: (902) 445-7168
Fax: (902) 445-7134
e-mail:ccnews@ns.sympatico.ca

"At This Point, Nobody Knows"

Community Problems, Community Solutions

Nova Scotia Shines Light on Lighthouse Day 2001

"Tea You Could Trot a Mouse On"

The 2001 Great Nova Scotia Trivia Contest

One Big "Thank You"!!!!

Who We Are: Don't Let Them Define You Down

Atlantic Fisheries Policy Review: Our Future on the Line

Sustainable Fisheries, Sustainable Communities

Coastal Communities News

Join the Coastal Communities Network

Our Mission Statement

"A Large Voice for Small Communities"

How to Become Involved
in the Coastal Communities Network

"At This Point, Nobody Knows"

Community Problems, Community Solutions

Nova Scotia Shines Light on Lighthouse Day 2001

"Tea You Could Trot a Mouse On"

The 2001 Great Nova Scotia Trivia Contest

One Big "Thank You"!!!!

Who We Are: Don't Let Them Define You Down

Atlantic Fisheries Policy Review: Our Future on the Line

Sustainable Fisheries, Sustainable Communities

Coastal Communities News

Join the Coastal Communities Network

Our Mission Statement

"A Large Voice for Small Communities"

How to Become Involved in the Coastal Communities Network

How to Become Involved
in the Coastal Communities Network