How CNF and the Trust Work Together in Service of the Nations

As the economic hub of the Fisheries Resources Reconciliation Agreement (FRRA) implementation, CNF works collaboratively with many other entities in service of the signatory Nations of the FRRA. One of those entities is the Coastal Nations Fisheries Trust (Trust).

The Trust is comprised of three representatives, or Trustees, from each of the FRRA’s three sub-regions—Haida Gwaii, North Coast and Central Coast. Additionally, each Nation has the option to appoint their own representative to the Trust. Gitxaała and Haíłzaqv have used this option. An Administrative Trustee, Peace Hills Trust, is supporting the Trustees in fulfilling their mandate to hold and manage the FRRA funds.

CNF and the Trust work collaboratively to ensure the needs of each Nation and the commercial company are addressed each fiscal year and that funds flow on time, accurately and transparently.

The Trust has eight separate accounts for each Nation. Each Nation’s account is divided into Community Based Fisheries (CBFs) funds and Commercial Fishing Opportunities funds, which are each separated into licence and quota, and vessel and gear funds, and finally into capital and income funds. The reason for the separation is that the total funds paid into Trust by Canada via the FRRA were divided that way. Capital and income are separated because they operate under different limitations in the FRRA and related agreements.

To streamline the process and reduce administrative costs, the Nations follow a clearly defined process to access their funds from the Trust, be it for licence, quota, vessel, gear or income.

The annual funding cycle of the Trust is based on the fiscal year from April 1 to March 31 of the following year.

Sometime before mid-November each year, the Nations review their respective multi-year strategic plan for their CBF and update the CBF Forecast Template based on their assessments of market conditions, CBF progress to date, and their Nation’s revised goals and priority species changes, amongst other factors.

CNF supports the Nations’ planning processes by providing information related to asset pricing and market conditions. If a Nation does not see the need for any updates, it can simply provide a letter to CNF saying so, however all Nations are asked to submit their forecasts or letters to CNF by November 15.

Each Nation’s forecast is consolidated into a multi-year strategic plan forecast, outlining the planned approach to acquire access, vessel and gear, for all Nations as well as the commercial company. CNF submits this forecast to the Trust on or before December 1.

The multi-year forecast allows the Trust to manage the long-term use of the funds to set strategy and maximize return on investment.

In a second step, the Nations fill out the Annual Acquisitions Request Template to specify their needs for acquisitions over the following year (for example, in the Annual Acquisitions Request 2025, the Nations would ask for their needs for 2026). The request does not need to completely align with the forecast, as conditions are constantly changing. For vessel and gear, the request is based on 40% value of the asset, since 40% is the maximum non-repayable grant portion of the loan for vessel and gear. The Nations can also access their income funds this way. The Annual Acquisitions Requests are submitted by the Nations by January 15.

CNF submits a consolidated request from the Nations together with the separate request from the commercial company in an annual application to the Trust by January 30.

In the first phase after submission, CNF and the Trust work through the application to make sure any concerns are addressed early on.

The Trust reviews the application internally, discusses it among all Trustees and, if satisfied, approves the distributions by resolution.

The funds are transferred to CNF sometime in April. Throughout the month, CNF distributes the income funds to the Nations together with the previous year’s acquisitions.

CNF then spends the year acquiring the assets requested by the Nations and commercial company. This process of having one unified purchasing alliance prevents the Nations competing against each other for licences and quota, and supports the creation of a stable purchasing plan.

CNF and the Trust are now in their fourth year of successfully working together through a solid protocol that provides the Nations with efficient transparent access to their funds.

The Taz is a crab vessel that will be used by the Haíłzaqv Nation for their Community Based Fishery.