Protecting Canada’s Fisheries

September 18, 2025

September 18, 2025
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Ottawa, ON – Clifford Small, Conservative Shadow Minister for Fisheries, issued the following statement on the Conservative Party’s steadfast support for fisheries in the midst of a Liberal immigration debacle:

“After a decade of Liberal rule, the government continues to fail Canada’s fishing industry: ignoring science, weakening enforcement and stealing quota from law-abiding Canadians.

“The Canadian fishing industry called for a separate, standalone program to provide workers for our critical fishing industry. Instead, all Atlantic Canadians got were more abuses of the Temporary Foreign Worker (TFW) program.

“The TFW program began to meet the needs of agricultural producers, but the Liberals corrupted it into a cheap and abusive source of labour for predatory multinational corporations.

“By contrast, Conservatives recently called for an end to the TFW program, instead replacing it with a separate, standalone program that will be more timely, efficient, and targeted to fill the legitimately difficult-to-fill jobs in the industries that grow, harvest and process our food.

“Canada’s immigration system used to be envied the world over. The Liberals broke it, and in the process drove up the cost of housing, unemployment, and effectively barred young Canadians from their first jobs.

“Conservatives call on the Liberals to do the right thing: end the TFW program and create a separate, standalone program for those who grow, harvest and process our food – like farmers and fishers – while providing safeguards for workers.”