22 



'Control of foreign 

 combines in the past 



Canadians now own 

 the outfits of 

 Manitoba fisheries. 



Canadian market 

 will secure more 

 and better fish. 



U.S. firms buy 

 Manitoba fish. 



Middleman's 



disproportionate 



profits. 



Responsibilities of 

 Canadian fish firms. 



only by some more efficient patrol or an improved system of official 

 supervision, and to this matter we refer at length in our present 

 report. 



We have laid stress in our interim report on the control so long 

 exercised by foreign fish corporations and combines. We stated that 

 we had ( abundant evidence that the Manitoba fisheries have been 

 unduly controlled by foreign fish operators who have dictated the 

 prices of fish and have secured the major portion of the profits. The 

 people of Manitoba have benefited little from these great lake fish- 

 eries. Moreover, inferior grades of fish have been sold in the Cana- 

 dian market, while the better grades, including the larger size fish, 

 (have been exported to the United States markets.' The commercial 

 crisis which affected so seriously the large United States fish com- 

 panies about four years ago had this result, that the property really 

 owned by these companies in Manitoba was disposed of and was 

 bought by Canadians; and, so far as we cars' ascertain, the freezers, 

 ice-houses, tugs, boats and gear at present employed in the fisheries 

 of the province are owned by Canadians and not by United States 

 citizens. An important change such as this should benefit the pro- 

 vince in numerous ways. Canadian labour will now be solely em- 

 ployed in the fishing and handling operations, and the catches taljen 

 by our fishermen will in no way be directly controlled by United 

 States fish firms. These foreign firms occupy now merely the posi- 

 tion of purchasers of fish after they are caught by our own fisher- 

 men and handled by Canadian fish companies. Such being the case, 

 there is every reason to hold that Canada will not only benefit in the 

 ways indicated, but will henceforth be able to secure supplies of the 

 best qualities of fish, and not be supplied merely with inferior grades 

 and with ' culls ' that the United States markets decline to take, and 

 which were formerly placed on our own markets. 



While the United States companies now are simply the pur- 

 chasers of our catches of Canadian fish, they are such heavy pur- 

 chasers, having contracts with Canadian companies whereby a regu- 

 lar supply of fish in accordance with the requirements of the fish 

 business is secured, that entire freedom from the control of the large 

 firms 011 the other side of the boundary line is well nigh impossible. 

 The high price of fish which the Canadian consumer complains about 

 arises, it must be admitted, from the methods of the middlemen who 

 acts as a medium between the fish companies and the small retail 

 dealers. The evidence secured in Wimi-peg showed that, the middle 

 man may make as much as three cents per pound profit on whitefish, 

 whereas the fisherman himself receives on the lake not more than 

 three cents per pound for his fish, and the Canadian companies who 

 handle the fish and store them in their freezers, or ship them fresh 

 on ice, do all this work on a very small margin of profit. It must 

 be remembered that the Canadian companies not only erect and oper- 

 ate freezers and store supplies of ice, build and supply the tugs 

 which are such a convenience to the fishermen in their fishing opera- 

 tions, furnishing supplies and in a multitude of ways facilitating the 

 fishing operations, but they also have the responsibility of the rise 

 and fall of the market, and of maintaining the channels of business 

 generally. These companies operate the fishing stations, supply nets,, 

 and make advances to the fishermen without which the industry could 

 not be carried on, and they do all this on a far less margin of profit 

 than the middlemen who merely sells the fish to the retail dealers, 



