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The Ice Compensation Program announced by Fisheries and Oceans Canada will provide
financial assistance to fishers in Northern Newfoundland and Labrador and Northeastern
Quebec who have been prevented or delayed from fishing because of severe ice conditions.
Service Canada will issue the compensation payment to eligible recipients on behalf
of DFO. It is important to understand the eligibility criteria for the ice compensation
program.
Ice conditions are a fairly common phenomenon in these areas, and not a cause
for concern in most years. From time to time extreme conditions do prompt a form
of income compensation when fishers are prevented from fishing. As a result, these
fishers experience a prolonged period without any source of income.
Location:
The first requirement will be that applicants would normally be fishing in one
of the ice-affected areas or out of ice-affected ports. Those areas are:
|
Eligible Ice-Affected Areas |
Program Period (Tentative if marked **) |
|
Trinity
Bay (Grates Cove to Cape Bonavista)
|
May 6 to June
2 (4 weeks) |
|
Bonavista
Bay (Cape Bonavista to Cape Freels) |
May 6 to June
2 (4 weeks) |
|
Notre
Dame Bay/Fogo (Cape Freels to New Bay Head) |
May 6 to June
2 (4 weeks)
|
|
Green
Bay (New Bay Head to Cape St. John) |
May 6 to June
9 (5 weeks) |
|
White
Bay - North (Cape St. John to Cape Bauld) |
May 6 to June
23 (7 weeks) |
|
Northern
Peninsula - North (Cape Bauld to Ferrole Point) |
May 6 to June
9 (5 weeks) |
|
Labrador
Straits (Blanc Sablon to Cape St. Charles)
|
May 6 to June
9 (5 weeks) |
|
Labrador1
(North of Cape St. Charles) |
May 27 to
July 14 (7 weeks) ** |
|
Quebec
– Lower North Shore (Blanc Sablon to Kegaska)
|
May 6 to June
9 (5 weeks) |
1 Geographic boundaries and program period for Labrador (North
of Cape St. Charles) are subject to further monitoring of ice conditions and
fishing activity after June 23, 2007.
Fishers:
Successful applicants will have exhausted their existing Employment Insurance
fishing benefits in 2007 by a minimum of two weeks and will have been in receipt
of EI fishing benefits in 2005 and 2006. They currently must not be receiving or
eligible to receive any form of EI benefits.
This special program recognizes the financial hardships faced by fishers who
have been unable to fish despite the opening of the various fishery seasons and
whose Employment Insurance fishing benefits have ended. This is not an extension
of those benefits but rather an exceptional program delivered by DFO given exceptional
ice conditions.
Amount:
Payments will be equivalent to the national average of fishing EI benefits of
$377/week. Fishers will become eligible for the program the later of two weeks following
their final 2007 EI benefit payment or the start date of the program.
Fishing income will be deducted from benefit payments in the week it was earned,
and against subsequent weeks of the program, on a dollar-for-dollar basis.
Application forms:
The Ice Compensation Program application form is available on the DFO website:
www.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/ice-glace/index_e.htm and at DFO and Service Canada offices
in the ice-affected areas.
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