What is the Government of Canada doing to assist individuals and communities affected by the closure?
The Government of Canada announced a $50-million four-part action plan to assist individuals and communities most affected by the closure and to expand scientific research into the serious decline of these stocks. The action plan includes: • a two-year $44 million investment in community-based economic development assistance to provide assistance for short term job creation; • working with stakeholder groups and the provincial governments to determine a comprehensive approach to strengthening the sustainability of local economies; • conservation measures, including the creation of seal exclusion zones, no trawling zones, the closure of the recreational cod fishery in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and northeast of Newfoundland and Labrador, and, for the next three years, a 40 per cent reduction in the total allowable catch of capelin, an important food source for cod; and • a two-year $6 million scientific research program to expand on current activities to evaluate and assess the impact of
