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Newfoundland Fisheries Minister Gerry Byrne said he “cannot find the logic” in the federal government’s handling of the decision. “It has been anything but reconciliation,” he said. “It has pitted province against province, community versus community and First Nation against First Nation.”

Byrne said a better process already exists for ensuring that Indigenous communities have access to lucrative fisheries. He pointed to a federal program, created in 1994, that allows Ottawa to buy licences from holders who are willing to relinquish their quota and re-issue them to Indigenous groups.

“What is different about the surf clam decision is that this is the first time that I’m aware of that an existing (licence) holder had quota removed from it a) involuntarily and b) without compensation,” he said.

It has pitted province against province, community versus community and First Nation against First Nation

However, it’s not the first time the government has tried to break Clearwater’s monopoly. In 2015, the Harper government announced it would increase the total allowable catch from 38,756 tonnes to 52,655 tonnes, and allow new companies to enter the fishery. Clearwater opposed the increase, and continues to maintain that there is “no scientific evidence” that an increase would be sustainable.

In 2016, the Liberal government reversed the change pending further scientific review. This latest move is an attempt to break the monopoly without increasing the catch.

In September, LeBlanc told the Post he’s optimistic that further research will provide a basis for increasing the clam harvest. “That would certainly be my hope but I don’t want to wait,” he said; otherwise, “you continue in perpetuity the status quo, which was a very long-term monopoly.”

Instead, the government decided to try and open a lucrative fishery and further reconciliation, all at once. But so far, it seems to have left almost nobody happy.

“It has resulted in Indigenous groups in Atlantic Canada being pitted against each other, developing ill feelings,” McDonald said. “It does nothing for reconciliation.”

• Email: mforrest@postmedia.com | Twitter: MauraForrest