End of Provincial Jurisdiction over Aquaculture Will Likely Impact BCGEU Members

The provincial and federal governments have begun meeting with regards to the future of aquaculture regulation. However, there is no agreement yet to engage in any formal employee transfer.

The BC Supreme Court ruled that finfish aquaculture regulation falls under the jurisdiction of the federal government, which now has until the end of the year to actually take over the regulation. In the interim, the BC government will continue to employ members to perform these functions. The Ministry is moving towards also transferring shellfish aquaculture to the federal government, which would keep all aquaculture regulation together.

The union will be holding an information session in the Courtenay worksite March 8th at 1:30 pm. Part of the meeting will be open to union members only, and will deal with questions about timelines, members' collective agreement rights, and the union's role. For another part of the meeting, the Ministry's Executive Director of Strategic Initiatives will be present in order to update members on the March 4th provincial-federal aquaculture talks, and to answer questions.

A lot of the process will be driven by the federal government, and they have yet to make a number of important decisions.

"What we want for our aquaculture members is some certainty. We know that some of this certainty will only come from the feds, and that some of it will only come at a later date. But we also say it is important that the provincial government keeps clear lines of communication open with members."

Whatever the federal government decides, the union's top concern is ensuring members get options - whether this means transitioning over to the feds and protecting seniority, vacation entitlement, and pensions; or finding suitable placements elsewhere in the provincial service. The union has experience with federal-provincial transfers, and the collective agreement Article 13 deals with members placement rights.

Meeting Details:

Information Session - BCGEU Union Meeting
Service BC Centre (Large Boardroom)
2500 Cliffe Avenue, Courtenay
Monday, March 8th, 1:30pm