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UBC Prof Says No More Subsidies to Fisheries

By crooky | July 16, 2008

This is going to be a controversial post. Feel free to send me hate mail. It’s just my opinion. I have been accused by the Left of being a Conservative. I have been accused by the Right of being a Commie. I am neither. I’m apolitical in many respects. As someone who works in policy development, I try to stay politically neutral. I am not, however, above noting when someone says something really clever or really dumb. In this case, someone has put words to a long-held sentiment of mine - that government subsidies for the operations of any industry are stupid and not in the best interest of anyone.

I put the caveat in “for the operations of” because I believe that some forms of subsidy do more good than harm. Research and commercialization subsidies, for example, do more good than harm. To stay competitive, we need new businesses and a sense of entrepreneurialism are sorely needed in Canada. They add to the economic well being of our country.

When resource-based industries like logging, fishing and farming decline for decades as a contributor to GDP, it’s time to move on. Government bailouts of mills and fishing fleets are ridiculous. Research funding to turn natural resources into higher value products is a smart move. For example - did you know that you can turn Pine Beetle afflicted wood into carbon nanotube-like materials? Carbon nanotubes sell for thousands of times more money by weight than selling off the wood as pellet fuel or art furniture.

Natural resource extraction seems to be this sacred field that no one can criticize. I say “bullshit”. If you applied the same standards to dot coms and natural resource extraction companies, I think you’d hear a different tune from politicians and similar segments of the population.

I’m not shy to tell someone who is living in a dying town, working in a dying industry to get off their ass and get a new job somewhere else. It’s not my responsibility to pay your bills when you refuse to get a different job even though you’re perfectly capable of getting a new job. There’s a labour shortage in Canada. That means there’s no excuse for sitting around, waiting for the government to pay your rent.

I’ve done it. My family has done it. It’s not the end of the world. Kudos to Professor Sumaila of UBC for calling the fishing industry on its collective bullshit.

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Aaron “Crooky” Cruikshank is the Principal and Founder of Friuch Consulting. He has written professionally about science and technology for ten years.

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Topics: Policy, social issues |

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