Fish or Cut Bait!

Raymond B. Blake is director of the Centre for Canadian Studies at Mount
Allison University, the author of Canadians at Last: Canada Integrates
Newfoundland as a Province, and co-editor of Social Welfare Policy in
Canada: Historical Readings.

Fisheries all over the world are in trouble, and Canadian fisheries are
no exception. Much of the East Coast fishery is shut down, and the
salmon fishery of British Columbia is teetering on the brink of
collapse. The competitive nature of the salmon fishery, this book
argues, only exacerbates the problems. While the Fraser Institute (which
produced this collection of essays) usually preaches the virtues of
competition, here it warns that competition in the B.C. salmon industry
does not serve anyone’s interests. The rush to harvest the limited
resource is inefficient and works against conservation. Moreover, the
competitive approach puts the lives of workers unduly at risk.

The editors suggest that the various measures implemented by the
Department of Fisheries and Oceans, which had responsibility for
managing the salmon resources, have been largely ineffective.
Furthermore, the costs to the Canadian taxpayer, in the form of
subsidies for such an approach, have been far too high. Subsidies
notwithstanding, the income for fishers has declined dramatically in
recent years, and the number of fishers who depend on Employment
Insurance benefits has increased. Radical changes are thus necessary.
According to this book, the solution lies with individual transfer
quotas (ITQs), a system of management that grants fishers rights to a
specified quantity of fish before the season begins. The nine essays
contained in the book make the case for ITQs. The authors argue that the
assignment of property rights to a common-property problem—what has
been called by others the “tragedy of the commons”—would result in
a number of benefits: it would eliminate inefficient capitalization,
increase the price for salmon, produce a higher-quality product, create
a safer work environment, and resolve the conflict between various
stakeholders, including sport, commercial, and Native fishing interests.
Moreover, this approach will allow the market to function, since ITQs
can be bought and sold to allow for even greater economic efficiency.

Fish or Cut Bait! makes a strong case for the implementation of
ITQs—which have proven effective elsewhere—in British Columbia.