P.E.I. lobster levy delayed for one year

The lobster levy that the Prince Edward Island Fishermen's Association hoped to bein place this year has been delayed until spring 2016.

Executive director Ian MacPherson said the association wanted to collect one cent per pound by the end of the 2015 lobster season.

The delay came after the association met with provincial fisheries ministerAlan McIsaac on May 29 to discuss the levy. They hoped tomoveforward with the formation of a lobster commodity board under the Natural Products Marketing Act.

MacPherson said the timeline is too tight for a levy to be in place for the end of this season.

"He walked us through in terms of what could happen on the legislative side and we did caucus with our executive and taking these various factors into consideration, the decision was made to get everything in place structurally for this year but that it made sense to start the collection period for both the harvester and the processor levy in the spring of 2016," said MacPherson.

Meetings will be held with the onshore buyers group after the spring 2015 season to discuss the process outlined in the lobster regulations. The levy will be collected from the harvesters and onshore buyers at the same time.