After Matane shrimp, snow crab processing could be jeopardized because of the visas imposed by Ottawa on Mexican workers.
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Of the 218 workers expected to operate the fishing industry in the Magdalen Islands, nearly 75% are currently stranded in Mexico, says local MP Joël Arseneau.
This is because Ottawa’s imposition of residence visas on residents of Mexico, in response to requests from Quebec to reduce the influx of asylum seekers, is creating a headache for employers this year.
Visa applications will take four to six weeks to process. “Obviously, in four to six weeks, the fishing is over,” underlines Mr. Arseneau, explaining that, next year, employers will have time to plan ahead.
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Matane
At the beginning of the week, the Les Fruits de l’Est processing plant in Matane had to close its doors due to the drop in shrimp quotas and the difficulty of finding employees since the imposition of the new Mexican visas.
Questioned in the corridors of the National Assembly, Immigration Minister Christine Fréchette criticizes the lack of planning on the part of the federal government.
“We would have expected that the federal government would have prepared more for this measure of imposing a Mexican visa, that it would have planned it more, because we have been discussing it for months. It is up to him to correct the situation because he did not prepare the measure well enough,” she declared.
Closures?
In the meantime, processing plants in the Magdalen Islands, particularly for snow crab fishing which will begin soon, could also be forced to close their doors, believes Joël Arseneau.
“The landings will have to take place elsewhere, in the Maritimes, or even in the United States,” he notes. “We cannot concede that our factories in Quebec will close one after the other. After Matane, it’s the Îles-de-la-Madeleine, then it will be Gaspésie. The federal government must act, it can act.”