DEVELOPING 120 active fires burning across Canada, 30 are 'out of control'
The 2024 wildfire season has begun, and it's shaping up to follow last year's unprecedented destruction in kind, with thousands of square kilometres already consumed.
Longliners across Newfoundland and Labrador are tied up once again, as a new protest by the province's fish harvesters threatens to derail the crab fishery for a second straight year.
The crab season for most parts of the province opened on April 6, but fishing vessels remain tied to wharves — and crab pots have been left on land — as harvesters, again, dispute the price set by a government-appointed panel.
"No one made no money in 2023," said Glen Winslow, a crab fisherman and a representative with the Fish Food and Allied Workers union (FFAW).
"I certainly didn’t break even. I spent a lot more money than I took in in 2023, and I don’t intend to do it in 2024."
Last year, fish harvesters left their boats tied up for six weeks, hoping to force the minimum price higher than $2.20 per pound.
An arbitrator ruled that the tie-up constituted an illegal work stoppage, which broke the rules of a collective agreement between the FFAW and the Association of Seafood Processors. The union may have to pay penalties.
At a news conference on Wednesday, union leaders said they were — and are — simply listening to their members, who are independent business owners, and who've decided that fishing for this year’s price isn’t worth it.
Greg Pretty, the president of the FFAW. (CTV News)
"You can’t put handcuffs on a union not to speak when things are going south," Greg Pretty, the president of the FFAW, said.
Newfoundland and Labrador’s Fish Price Setting Panel set this year’s price at $2.60 per pound, siding with a submission from the seafood producers over the fisheries union.
Pretty said the independent government panel made a mistake, and disregarded a comprehensive review of the fishery that written just last year.
"The Blackwood formula would have fixed all of our problems," Winslow said. "But it was thrown out at the last minute."
The Association for Seafood Producers did not respond to a request for comment, but said it would speak to the media about the tie-up on Thursday.
The tie-up is unlikely to hit Canadian consumers as most of the province’s crab is shipped by the processors to destinations in the United States.
The crab fishery has become a lifeline for rural Newfoundland, a major employer in the fishery since the North Atlantic cod stock collapsed in 1992.
The tie-up is unlikely to hit Canadian consumers as most of the province's crab is shipped by the processors to destinations in the United States. (CTV News)
Business boomed in 2021 and 2022, when the average price for pound of crab caught soared above $7.
But it collapsed last spring, when the price tumbled to just $2.20 per pound. It was the lowest price seen in a decade.
FFAW Secretary-Treasurer Jason Spingle said he’s heard from members who are hurting and struggling to pay the debt they took on the buy or build fishing businesses.
"He paid the interest," he said Wednesday, recounting one conversation this spring.
"That's what he paid. Now, how many years can you do that before you can't do it anymore? Just pay the interest, not $0.01 the principal."
The 2024 wildfire season has begun, and it's shaping up to follow last year's unprecedented destruction in kind, with thousands of square kilometres already consumed.
Veteran TSN broadcaster Darren 'Dutch' Dutchyshen, one of Canada’s best-known sports journalists, has died. He was 57. His family says 'he passed as he was surrounded by his closest loved ones.'
Apple users are experiencing an iMessage outage, reporting issues with sending and receiving messages, Downdetector shows.
A ‘lifetime of abuse’ led Dallas Ly to snap and repeatedly stab his mother inside their Leslieville apartment in 2022 but he never intended to kill her, his defence lawyers argued during his murder trial in Toronto on Thursday.
A father has been charged with second-degree murder in the stabbing death of his 34-year-old daughter in southern Quebec.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau assailed New Brunswick's premier and other conservative leaders on Thursday, calling out the provincial government's position on abortion, LGBTQ youth and climate change.
Kevin Spacey is pushing back on the 'rush to judgment' against him and is being backed by some big names as he seeks to reclaim his acting career.
A Montreal father who kidnapped his daughter who has autism and lied to police when they asked where she was should serve three years in prison, a Crown prosecutor said.
A burgeoning track star says his dream of going to the Olympics is being derailed by a deportation order after Immigration officials rejected his family’s claim for asylum
A Starbucks fan — whose name is Winter — is visiting Canada on a purposeful journey that began with a random idea at one of the coffee chain's stores in Texas.
Members of Piapot First Nation, students from the University of Winnipeg and various other professionals are learning new techniques that will hopefully be used for ground searches of potential unmarked grave sites in the future.
ALS patient Mathew Brown said he’s hopeful for future ALS patients after news this week of research at Western University of a potential cure for ALS.
When Adam Kirschner wrote 'Slap Shot,' he never imagined the song would be embraced by his favourite team.
A team is ready to help an entangled North Atlantic right whale in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
A $200 reward is being offered by a North Vancouver family for the safe return of their beloved chicken, Snowflake.
Two daughters and a mother were reunited online 40 years later thanks to a DNA kit and a Zoom connection despite living on three separate continents and speaking different languages.
Mother's Day can be a difficult occasion for those who have lost or are estranged from their mom.
YES Theatre Young Company opened its acclaimed kids’ show, One Small Step, at Sudbury Theatre Centre on Saturday.