Whitefish Bay First Nations Bought Kenora Fish Plant

[rockpt]

Whitefish Bay takes over as new owner of Kenora fish plant
Primary market will be for white fish with smaller amounts of traditional sport fish species according to commercial quotas allocated to First Nation communities by MNR

By Reg Clayton
for The Enterprise
Saturday May 03, 2008

Whitefish Bay First Nation is once again taking a lead role in pursuing economic development opportunities on behalf of band members and other Treaty 3 communities.
Chief Warren Whitehead confirmed Tuesday, the band has purchased the former King Fisheries processing plant in Kenora.
“It’s signed, sealed and delivered,” Chief White said, adding that the plant will employ community members and provide a stable market for fish caught by aboriginal commercial fisherman on Lake of the Woods and surrounding lakes.
“The big difference is going to be service, the fishermen will be paid for their catch right away. In the last five years, a lot of fishermen have been frustrated by the process,” he said.
The primary market will be for white fish with smaller amounts of traditional sport fish species such as walleye and northern pike supplied according to commercial quotas allocated to First Nation communities by the Ministry of Natural Resources.
Chief White dispelled misinformation posted on a Minnesota sport anglers website stating that the aboriginal commercial fishery is unregulated in Canada.

He explained that although First Nation residents are entitled to sustenance fishing, the aboriginal commercial fishery is subject to provincial regulations, quotas and limited to specific fishing blocks which determine when and where nets can be set.
“We don’t go all over the lake and set nets wherever we want, we’re limited to certain areas and quotas,” he said. “We will be very closely working with MNR to follow all guidelines, licences and quotas. This is for our community fishermen and to make it better for everyone.”
”First Nations involvement in the fishery goes back decades. There have been no changes in quotas,” concurred Scott Lockhart MNR resource liaison for Lake of the Woods. “Licensing is in place to manage the level of the commercial harvest. First Nations are assigned areas to fish by authorized fishermen.”
Lockhart added that it’s MNR’s responsibility to manage the resource to ensure the Lake of the Woods fishery is sustainable for commercial, sport, recreation and First Nation subsistence fishing.”Our interest is to make sure all theactivities are done in a sustainable manner,” he said.
The plant is expected to be up and running later this spring. In addition to staffing the six person operation, the new owners have purchased a refrigeration truck to collect and transport the cleaned and iced fish from the communities to Kenora. The plant will sell to local buyers and efforts are also underway to identify new domestic markets, the U.S. as well as international sales.
Bimose Tribal Council economic development officer Louis Seymour is working on the business plan on behalf of Whitefish Bay, a member community.
He said modifications inside the processing plant are proceeding to ensure compliance with Canadian Food Inspection Agency regulations.
“We hope to maintain a clean, well managed operation that builds on the culture of First Nations to sustain a commercial fishery in the area,” Seymour said.
The acquisition of the fish processing plant follows the Whitefish Bay band’s recent purchase of the Kenwood Hotel for redevelopment as office space and meeting rooms for aboriginal organizations.
The First Nation has also acquired a hardware store in Sioux Narrows and last spring band members voted to move forward with a proposed 150 lot cottage development on Yellow Girl Bay.

[Matches]

Rockpt,
Finally, a verified source. Thanks for posting this info.

I wonder if the Wal-Mart in Kenora will be selling their fish.

[rockpt]

Hey Matches,

Good to hear from you.

I'm keeping an open mind about their practices and what effect it has until I see credible evidence that it's hurting the fishery (and yes, I know all about the past netting abuses). First Nations have a legal right to net and I hope MNR does its job of monitoring compliance with the regs. Would be great to see native netting and sport fishing co-exist without all the controversy and mud slinging.

When you going to be up this year?

[Matches]

Rockpt,
I am hoping to be up there in mid-July with PJM when the rocks heat up, and we'll be there the first week of Sept. Then, I pray I can go in October too. We'll have to meet up for a shore-lunch sometime.

[rockpt]

Matches,

Tell Skip I said "Hey" and let's plan a shorelunch.

You need to get up in Oct., nothing like fall on LOTW...beautiful colors, moose and deer in the rut, all the ducks and geese coming down from the north, great fishing for crappie and trophy 'eyes and muskie, and a constant fire in the woodstove.

We'll be up in July and again in early Oct.

[Flip Silverlake]

Looks like we'll be back to catching 12 inch hammer handles. 12 inch fish $5.00 per gallon gas may be its time to stay home.

Does anyone know of areas in Canada or the states that don't have "native" populations? That's where I'm heading to fish!