CANSO — The knock on the door comes just as Ginny Boudreau takes another bite of her sandwich. “They know it’s lunchtime,” she laughs, under her breath, “but they come anyway.”
It’s been nearly a month since China slapped a 25 per cent tariff on Canadian seafood. A week since the U.S. administration’s so-called Liberation Day in its stop-start-stop-again trade war with almost the entire world. And, all along the Canso waterfront, the air is thick with tension.
Inside the crowded office of the Guysborough County Inshore Fishermen’s Association (GCIFA), the phones don’t stop ringing. Members shuffle in, tired-eyed and tight-lipped, waving forms and questions.
“I had 25 or 30 people in here this morning,” Boudreau says. “It’s chaos.”
But, in a brief moment between knocks and calls, the long-time GCIFA manager gets to the heart of it. “My membership are as nervous as a bunch of cats in a room full of rock[ing chairs],” she says. “How do you plan for something when ... everything is so unstable?”
What’s needed now, she says, is a clear strategy to move beyond the volatility of politically weaponized markets like the United States and China. “We should have been more self-sufficient long before now ... should have had more of a national Canadian market ... invested more resources ... because there’s potential there. Now, we’re looking at the U.K. and some of these other countries that don’t have tariffs on us.”
She pauses, takes another bite of her sandwich before finishing. “Two things, right? You have to make an investment ... you’re going to expend resources to develop those markets. And, it also takes time – doesn’t happen overnight.
“We paid for the Chinese market – and lost it.”
There is precedent, she says. Like much of the Nova Scotia seafood industry, the GCIFA’s 140 members once relied heavily on U.S. buyers. During the “first reign of terror” under Trump’s first term of office, they pivoted – investing millions collectively in building market access and trust in China.
“We spent the last four or five years, you know, investing heavily into ... the Chinese market,” Boudreau says. “You know, through trade shows, through visits to those countries ... working with their ambassadors, our ambassadors ... our processors doing their own work, at their own cost, to try to find new markets.
“Then, the federal government saw fit to piss off our Chinese markets by levying a 100 per cent tariff on their electric vehicles last October. They retaliate. Central Canada didn’t really have too much to worry about there, but the fishing industry certainly did, because a 25 per cent tariff on our Chinese market leaves us with scrambled eggs.”
Despite those challenges, Nova Scotia’s seafood industry has been making inroads into alternative international markets. According to federal government data, exports to the United Kingdom reached approximately $45 million in 2022, with lobsters accounting for 76.9 per cent and shrimp for 22.2 per cent of that total. Exports to European Union countries totalled $346 million – up from $133 million in 2012 – demonstrating a strong appetite for Canadian seafood in tariff-free jurisdictions that prioritize sustainability and quality.
Indeed, Boudreau says, “Canadian seafood ... almost all have sustainability labels ... and the U.K. and some of those other countries – Denmark, Korea, Vietnam – those countries look for sustainability labels. So, Canada is positioned very well to move into those markets.
Still, as she says, “It takes time.” And, nowadays, time is not on anyone’s side.
Survival margins, vanishing prices
With the local lobster season set to open this month, most harvesters simply don’t know what they’ll earn for their catch. “We have no idea, no idea what kind of a price we’re gonna have for this season,” Boudreau says. “What other industry, what other product gets landed, gets harvested? The farmers don’t go out and say, ‘Okay, I’m harvesting my carrots,’ and have absolutely no idea what they’re going to get paid for [them]. They know.”
Rumours have prices plunging to $3.50 a pound – even as bait pushes $2. “If I pay $2 for bait, and I’m only getting $3 or $3.50 for my lobster... I gotta pay fuel, I gotta pay equipment ... I gotta pay my crew, I gotta pay myself... maintenance ... wharf fees ... insurance ... I gotta, gotta, gotta, gotta,” she says. “It all comes out of the harvest.”
Historically, bait has hovered around $1.25. But, with herring and mackerel stocks depleted — and uncertainty surrounding international imports — prices are climbing fast. “There’s such a shortage ... we are getting some redfish now ... but these crazy tariffs, we have no idea ... it’s just the uncertainty, right?”
What’s frustrating isn’t just the market instability, she says – it’s the political inaction.
“We’re hearing [about] all kinds of assistance and resources ... [that] they’re working very hard ... negotiating this, that, and the other thing for [other] industries,” she says. “We had Mark Carney here in Nova Scotia. Who did he meet with? Remember? Irving Shipyard.
“We’re one of the biggest contributors to the GDP in Nova Scotia,” she continues. “So, if I was looking for a vote ... and I wanted to show the federal government’s support ... I think I would meet with at least the provincial fisheries minister, or some fisheries organization, or somebody... but did he? No.”
And, while the provincial government did support international air cargo during COVID, Boudreau says there’s been little pragmatic follow-through. “You know, at the Halifax airport during COVID, the province kicked in and did amazing work with getting more cargo space for our product on the plane to certain countries ... But I don’t see a commitment ... as of yet ... that there’s resources ... that are going to help the fishing industry ... expand and explore and invest in these [new] markets.”
That may be changing. The Atlantic Fisheries Fund committed over $36 million to 142 projects across Nova Scotia, supporting harvesters, processors and aquaculture operators with innovation, equipment upgrades and sustainability improvements.
Both levels of government have also established contingency funds and modest market-diversification grants in response to the ongoing tariff crisis. Nova Scotia Fisheries and Aquaculture Minister Kent Smith has said the province will set aside $200 million for a contingency fund. “My department has also received an additional $200,000 in permanent funding to support market diversification activities specific to the seafood sector. There are many other supports at the federal and provincial levels for companies who wish to explore new markets.”
Back to the grind – and the mission
For all the fatigue in her voice, Boudreau does not sound defeated. She knows this industry. She knows its rhythms, its chaos [and] its grit. She’s lived through enough trade flare-ups, supply shocks, bait crises, and boom-and-bust pricing cycles to recognize that survival demands more than endurance – it demands adaptation.
“There are things we can do, that we haven’t been doing – as fishers, as processors and as governments,” she says. “We’ve gotten very lazy. Very comfortable ... those markets were always there. So, we sort of took them for granted.”
Now, she says, that luxury is gone. “The threat is always there. So, we should always be looking to diversify.”
And so, she does what she always does – gets back to it.
The Fishermen and Scientists Research Society’s science committee is in and out of her office, handing out temperature gauges and logbooks for the upcoming lobster season. Harvesters drop in looking for help with their credentials and federal licence applications. Others need vessel transfers, personal fishing registrations or printouts of the latest lobster conditions. “It’s our business,” she says, “We have no idea what we’re going to get this season – but we go out anyway.”
A knock on the door. Another phone call. Her lunch goes cold again.
Boudreau doesn’t stop – not now.
There’s too much on the line.
