The Atlantic Fisheries Fund (AFF) has been extended to March 2026, with millions left on the table for those in Atlantic Canada’s marine industries.
Originally, the AFF was slated to span seven years from 2017 to March 2024. The program, however, was afforded a two-year extension. According to Rob McDonald, program director of the AFF, the program has provided funding for 1,244 projects in that lifespan. By March 2026, all investment funds for the AFF must be allotted and all funded projects must be completed.
“The minister was successful in obtaining an extension for that because we still had some fairly significant funds left on the table to invest,” said McDonald. “The two-year extension allowed us to do a couple of things. It allowed us to continue to approve projects beyond the original 2024 sunset date, which we’ve been doing, to allow us to continue to invest the remaining funds. It also gave recipients more time to actually implement their project. When we approve the funding, they still have to actually do the project; those can take multiple years.”
With over 90 per cent of the AFF’s funding invested, around $35 million is still up for grabs over the next couple years. The AFF has also invested in “third party delivery groups” such as industry associations and other non-governmental organizations to further distribute those funds as they see fit.
“That allows us to distribute funds for a very high volume of smaller ticket projects. It’s administratively very efficient, plus these folks already have connections with their membership,” said McDonald. “That actually has allowed us to reach another 3,500 recipients on top of the [1,244 recipients]. They still have some funding left that they can continue to invest — certainly until the summertime. They can do smaller projects; they can turn them around relatively quickly and they can be done quicker than some of the bigger ones we invest in.”
With 90 per cent of the AFF invested in the industry, McDonald has his share of success stories. One that came to mind was Scotia Harvest, a seafood processor in Digby County, Nova Scotia. By aiding Scotia Harvest in upgrading to the latest processing technology, McDonald said the company improved their productivity and reduced their labour requirements.
“We’ve done over 70 per cent of our investments under what we called the infrastructure pillar,” said McDonald. “The primary incentive for industry to want to come to us under that pillar is to deal with their number one challenge, which is labour shortages, overreliance on temporary foreign workers and labour productivity gaps or challenges.
In New Brunswick, McDonald pointed to an investment in the Association des crabiers acadiens (ACA), which allowed the association to pilot test emerging technologies to reduce or mitigate gear entanglements with North Atlantic right whales.
“They, over the last several years, have been testing, piloting and trialling all of the emerging harvesting technologies out there to see what can work — various types of ropes and things like that,” said McDonald. “There is a thing called the Marine Mammals Protection Act, which Canada has to demonstrate south of the border that they’re taking steps to address that issue. This is a project that speaks to that and has some positive traction.”
Over on Prince Edward Island, the AFF allotted funding to the Prince Edward Island Fishermen’s Association (PEIFA) to address lobster mortality aboard the fishing vessel of their membership.
“Simple things like onboard insulated tubs, canopies — a lot of stuff that is fairly on the low-tech scale but having that extra handling capacity onboard has had a huge impact on lobster vitality and reduced mortalities,” said McDonald. “With that, they were able to reach upwards of 700 harvesters and change the way they were handling lobster onboard to get a very positive impact.”
In total, 70 per cent of the AFF’s funding has gone into the “infrastructure pillar” for new technology adoption, 22 per cent has gone into research and development and the remaining eight per cent has gone into science partnerships in the industry. McDonald also noted that the AFF is the only government funding program that aids harvesters.
“ACOA (Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency) does not do harvesting, they do processing and aquaculture. We pretty much are it for that sector,” said McDonald. “In terms of dollars, about 46 per cent has gone to processing, but they can be multi-million-dollar investments. On the harvesting side, a lot of them are smaller mom and pop operations, so by volume over 70 per cent of our investments have gone to harvesting.”
While the AFF has received a two-year extension, McDonald noted that the time needed to process applications and complete projects makes this window shorter than it seems. To apply for AFF funding, visit www.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/fisheries-peches/initiatives/fish-fund-atlantic-fonds-peche/atlantic-component-volet-atlantique-page01-eng.html.
