MPs beat up on the BFC

The two men who run the Baffin Fisheries Coalition faced a bruising, and sometimes personal, set of questions in Ottawa late last month, fired at them by Members of Parliament on the House of Commons fisheries committee.

Committee members, especially Peter Stoffer, the NDP MP for Sackville-Eastern Shore in Nova Scotia, made a variety of allegations about the BFC, ranging from an appearance of conflict of interest, quota trading deals with foreign interests, and the salaries earned by the BFC’s bosses.

Ben Kovic, the BFC’s president, and Jerry Ward, the BFC’s CEO, appeared before the committee on the morning of March 22, when MPs had just finished hearing from members of Qikiqtarjuaq’s Nattivak HTO about why they’ve broken away from the BFC to develop their own community-based fishery.

Last fall, the Commons fisheries committee launched an investigation into the BFC and how it fishes a 4,000-tonne turbot quota in northern Davis Strait.

During testimony, Sam Nuqingaq, the Nattivak HTO’s secretary-treasurer, said his organization believed for a while that Kovic, who was chair of the Nunavut Wildlife Management Board until October of 2004, created a perception of a conflict of interest when he moved over to the BFC.

That’s because, while still chair of the NWMB, Kovic would have been involved in the NWMB’s denial of a 1,500-tonne turbot allocation requested by Nattivak in northern Davis Strait, or zone 0A. That allocation, if granted, would have come at the expense of the BFC, which has the right to fish 100 per cent of the area’s 4,000-tonne quota, under a longstanding NWMB recommendation.

Kovic started his new job as president of BFC on Nov. 14, 2004.

“The reason I’m asking that is because it seems quite coincidental that a person who is in the NWMB would give quota or licences to the BFC and then shortly afterwards become head of the BFC. It gives the perception of a conflict of interest,” Stoffer said while questioning the Nattivak delegation.

Nuqingaq responded by saying the Nattivak HTO had the same question.

“Last year, when we were asking for the quota, he was the president. We felt that, yes, there was conflict of interest,” Nuqingaq said.

Nuqingaq, however, also said Kovic has the right to work wherever he wants.

In response to later questions, Kovic confirmed that, in his time as chair of the NWMB, he did make recommendations to the fisheries minister that the BFC, his current employer, receive quota allocations. But he did not otherwise respond to the conflict of interest allegation.

Stoffer also suggested that Jerry Ward and Kovic may be overpaid for the work they do, and he asked Ward to get the BFC’s board to tell the fisheries committee how much money the two executives are paid every year.

“If I’m not mistaken, your personal salary from the BFC is quite handsome, plus there are bonuses and other things on top of that,” Stoffer said.

Ward rejected the request, and angrily denied the allegation that he’s overpaid, saying it’s “inappropriate and uncalled for,” and that the “real agenda” at the Commons committee is set by fishing interests in Nova Scotia.

“With regard to my salary, I am hired based on my qualifications, and I’ll put them up against you or anybody around this table with the 30 years I’ve been in this industry in the United States, Canada, and elsewhere. I’m paid at a competitive rate… Let’s get serious, gentlemen,” Ward said.

Stoffer pointed out that although the BFC is a not-for-profit corporation, it has a for-profit subsidiary called Nataanaq Fisheries, the company from which it leases the Inuksuk 1, a factory-freezer trawler once owned by a Danish-Icelandic partnership.

Under questioning, Ward was reluctant to say who Natanaaq’s directors are. But towards the end of the session he told the committee’s chair, Tom Wappel, that the directors are Steingrímur Erlingsson, Finnur Hartharsson, and “a gentleman from Newfoundland.” He insisted that Natanaaq is a legitimate Canadian firm, and described it as a subsidiary of the BFC “to operate and own its vessels.”

Ward also denied allegations made by Stoffer that the BFC has been involved in two complex quota trading arrangements. He alleged that the BFC traded Baffin turbot for shrimp quotas held by other companies, and then sent the shrimp to foreign markets instead of Canadian plants.

Ward said those allegations are “totally misleading and in most cases false,” but Stoffer wasn’t convinced.

“But you leave us with a suspicion, Mr. Kovic and Mr. Ward. In my own assumption there is a shell game going on here, and what’s happening is that the fish stocks are being traded for other stocks,” Stoffer said.

Ward also told the committee that the BFC has just worked out a $5.4 million, three-year deal with HRD, to train “hundreds” of Inuit fisheries workers. Those training programs have already started.