Inside the PEI oyster crisis

0:00Canada is complicated. And help Berda? Well, it has opinions. I'm Kathleen Betty, the host of West of Center. If you're wondering about separation or the many ways Alberta marches to its own drum, our show will help you understand what's going on out West. Tune in for a no-nonsense conversation about the politics that drive this place. And follow West of Center wherever you get your podcasts. This is a CBC podcast. Hello, I'm Matt Galloway and this is the current podcast. Not looking that good over here, are we? Never seen in him like this. Disaster, what it is. We are in West Prince on PEI climbing through the island's red mud onto an oyster barge and heading out onto the dock river. Oh, we're just going to try and make these a little bridge. She's going to get completely soaked. It is a gray day and the weather matches the mood around here. In the dead zone, there's no oysters left.

1:02Is that what people call it? The dead zone? Well, that's pretty well what we're calling it now. This area is famous for its clean, sweet, delicious, malpick oysters. They are almost as famous as PEI potatoes, eaten right around the world. But the oyster industry on the island is fighting for its life. The whole island is just massacred at this point. It's terrible. You're going to take us out? Yeah, I'll take you down. We can go up there and the river, we can go on airframe or we can go look at the other thousands of cages that are over here that are completely empty too. Sure. This is the current. My name is Matt Galloway and today we're in the Maritimes. We're headed down to Charlottetown and the building that is known in Canada as the cradle of confederation at a time when the future of this country is in question. We're off to New Brunswick where in the face of economic headwinds, a beloved local brand has found a way to grow across the country and beyond. Here's a hint about that brand. I'm going to make donuts. And we will take you behind the scenes of a steamy new Netflix series that everyone out here is talking about. It's based on a book by the Canadian author Carly Fortune that is drawing a new generation

2:05of fans to PEI. Those people coming to the island and to the Maritimes aren't alone. In a moment of national pride, many thousands of Canadians are choosing to travel here for their summer vacation. Hi, I'm Kristi. Oh, yeah. Visiting from BC. Oh, lovely. We met listeners from BC, Alberta, Ontario, St. Andrews by the sea and beyond. This is one of the most beautiful parts of the country. It is still with some of the kindest people you could ever meet who, even in the toughest of times, are meeting the moment with grit, humor and heart. And so today, as part of the current, cross-Canada travels, we begin on the dock river and what's known as the Dead Zone. This is where the oyster growing starts here, is right up on that point and then from there heading out river and you can follow right into Foxley River and then like that. And it's just you're talking tens of thousands of cages whenever you get it that way. So tens of millions of dollars worth of equipment just floating empty in the river system. That's not producing anything for the economy.

3:07Bruce Rashard is an oyster farmer on Prince Head of Ireland and this oyster crisis started two years ago. And the disease called MSX was first detected on PEI. Then last summer, another disease, dermo. The oyster harvester say it's been a one-two punch. Neither disease is dangerous for humans, but they have wiped out most oysters in many areas of this island. And your oysters will go all over the country? All over the country in North America, beyond, I guess. What's that like? To know that the work normally, the work that you're doing feeds people kind of all over the place. It's interesting for sure. I mean, I don't eat oysters. So we don't actually eat them. I don't know. I just never, I like my food cool. Personally, I don't like it still moving when it's in the mouth. I mean, we really cook oysters and stuff like that, but I mean for the most part, it's, you sell more products if you don't eat it. If you've never seen a farm like this, pictured lines and lines of floating cages in a river, pulling up those cages with nothing but hollow dead oysters has been crushing.

4:10We didn't know what we were going to do because we were basically maxed out deadwires. This is terrible timing for Bruce and his wife Kayla. They have spent the last few years and essentially all of their money tripling the size of their oyster farm. We buried every cent we possibly could in this. We leveraged our home against it. You're talking about having business bills with no business income. So how do you, how do you make your payments? How do you make your payments? Right now we don't. Bruce is hoping that special oyster seeds from the United States will help save their farm. The Americans have been dealing with this for years and they have experience growing a resistant oyster. That's what the American seed is. Is it disease resistant? Resistence, yes. Yeah, but they haven't received those seeds yet and growing oysters takes about three years. Well, it's to try and make it those three years without completely folding the company. Hi, I'm Kayla. Bruce's wife. It's been really hard and stressful. I had to go get counseling done and I've been put on medication. So it's more than just our business. It's thirded out because of my father. My father started farming and then he was killed in a scutu accident in 2020.

5:13That's him there? Yeah. We couldn't just let his whole life investment into this business go so we took it over. This river is filled with other folks who are doing what you're doing. What have you heard from other people? I don't really like to talk about it. When we see each other out here, we all say have a better day because it's not have a good day. Just have a better day. Whenever you speak with them, they're all in the same boat. It's a huge mental health thing. It's very hard whenever you're listening to grown men and stuff. Talk about mental health. It's not something you normally hear, but it's pretty open these days and it's rough. Have you had any assistance from government or anything like that? You laughed when I just said that. A lot of promises. We have not gotten one cent from them. We've gotten, you'll be approved for this or you might get this or you should be able like they're supposed to be subsidizing the seed. We purchased. As of yet, we haven't gotten a cent. Do you think you have a future in this? I hope so. I just don't want to see it go. I've even tattooed it on my arm.

6:13My dad's writing the oyster. It means a lot to me and a lot to our family. Thank you. Put the dirt in the water and look down there. Nice little live oyster. That's a good sign. The oysters on PEI can be farmed or fished wild. Both have been plagued by the diseases. We lost each river, West River, North River, Bedeck, Wilmot, M. More, Fox River. This little area here seems to be not too big. All the areas, they were all big fish and areas. Gone. Bob McLeod has been fishing wild oysters since he was 12 years old. I'm Bob McLeod, president of the PEI Showfish Association. His life's work has pretty much stayed the same ever since. He fishes in a dory with these long tongs that look like garden rigs. It's just like two garden rigs. It's like one knee chandel. We're in Bob's Dory. I've never seen anything quite like this before. Okay, so you're going to get these rigs out.

7:16You just stuck those in the bottom and pulled up a bunch of seaweed and oysters that are in there. They all look lively. It's amazing that you're doing it by hand. It's labor intensive. You could do it with a lot of made sure or something like that. This is the only legal way to harvest wild oysters. Is by hand. By hand. You have to be out in a dory. You got to be in a boat. It's just amazing to see for those of us who are, again, eating the oyster off of a bed of ice. See you hauling them up from the bottom of the river. Oysters is different than a lot of fish. In codfish or something, you just don't fish them right, and they'll come back where oysters have a healthy bed. It's got to be fished because you got to break them up. You don't want the clusters. You want to just have a look. This spot here looks good. That's a bonus. He says a new federal program to buy back wild licenses might actually further kill the oyster industry. The bio program could have been good.

8:17And our proposal was to take 50 licenses a year for three years. It could give you three years to make up your mind. But with the federal government, they can make 150 licenses all at once, which kind of make up your mind pretty quick. If you make a wrong decision or whether to sell or not, it could be pretty bad. You're out of the business. Yeah. But you can't give up. You got to keep trying different things. So when the government says we'll take 150 licenses, they're giving up. Could you imagine not doing this? No. I tell you, I took a retrain truck driving course last winter, but I never brought myself to do it. I'm still swinging tons. And the oysters seem to be still in the water. It's hard to walk away. It's hard to walk away. This is your whole life. And you know when you lay the tons down, you're never going to pick them up, not my age. Don't bring any fresh up in my. Oh my goodness.

9:18Thanks, sir. That's probably the first time that oyster was touched by human hands. What is incredible is that despite everything we've seen here, the people in Western P.E.I. still love their oysters. That's one thing, too, the oysters are smaller because the bigger ones have died at a higher rate. Oh, is that really that's right? At Jeff Nois, barn-shaped restaurant in Tyne Valley, the oysters are still on the menu. It's a fascinating guy. It's hard to describe him. He is not just the owner here. He's an oyster farmer. He is the mayor of this community. And he is a champion oyster shucker, a thing that you realize as you enter his dining room. You come out the stairs and there is a huge oyster shucking trophy. It's really, really. It's bragging rights. If you are the P.E.I. oyster champion. Right? Yeah, I think so. I've chucked a lot of oysters. How many oysters have you shucked? Do you think over the course of your life? I have no idea. I would assume it would be over the million.

10:18You know, I've shucked a lot. That's for sure. You said these are the best oysters in the world when they're alive. That's right. This has been a really tough stretch of time. A lot of people in this area in particular are they're hurting and it's going to be a painful couple of years. You know, every second or third house in this area makes their living off of oysters. So it's scary. That's a huge number. Oh, it's crazy. The amount of people who either fish publicly or grow oysters or work in the plants. You gotta realize this little community is home to about half of the oyster plants on Prince Ireland. It's about 80% of what public fishers are from this area, West Prince area, majority of the growers as well. Like this is where the oysters come from. And we're nervous because, you know, we've seen it in other industries before when big corporations come in and take over after something has happened to the industry and that's what we're really concerned about. Is that what you're worried about? Is it the small oyster fishers, whether they're growing oysters or whether they're fishing in the wild, they'll get pushed out or they won't be able to hang on and the big guns

11:21who have, you know, a bunch of money in the bank will be able to step in. 100%. What does that mean? It means the end of what we know is the oyster industry. Right now the oyster industry is full of independent fishers. If you can't keep making your payments, you're going to lose your leases. You're going to lose your equipment. And then, you know, some of the companies with some big pockets can come in and snatch everything up and all of a sudden we're all working for them. And I hope that doesn't happen. Canada is complicated and help. Berda? Well, it has opinions. I'm Kathleen Betty, the host of West of Center. If you're wondering about separation or the many ways Alberta marches to its own drum, our show will help you understand what's going on out West. To and for a no nonsense conversation about the politics that drive this place, find and follow West of Center wherever you get your podcasts. We were with a couple of people today. I mean, it's a family run operation and they're growing oysters.

12:21And yeah, they're worried about losing their house. They're worried about losing the boat. They're worried about the bank. I'll be completely honest with you. I truly believe, and a lot of people in this area believe that if this issue affected people from Charlottetown, we wouldn't be waiting for help from government. We've been ignored in West Prince our whole lives and it's just continues to happen. They were saying that as well. That this was about snow crab or if it was about lobster that there would be bags of money being. There has been some programs come out. Some of them good and some of them I don't know what they're for, but it took two years to get that out. What do you think people need right now? They need to away through. There is light at the end of the tunnel, but how do they get to that tunnel? And the light at the end of the tunnel is with the US seed. I think that's a part of it. Like eventually our seed will become, you know, like the US seed, you know, it's great. I want as much seed in the water as possible. But what that's doing, it's another way for the bigger companies to control the industry. So for instance right now, there I think there's one company that has the right to bring

13:23the seed in. There will be another company that will have that right. But I mean, if they're selling the seed to the growers, they're not going to allow that grower to sell that oyster in three years to anybody but them. You control the seed, you can control the market. What do you think is it's steak you? Well, for us here, it's our culture. It's what we do. Like this is, you know, we don't have jobs. We fish. You know, it is a way of life. And when you take that away, it's a massive, massive, massive change in people's lives. What do you love about oysters? Absolutely everything. Absolutely everything. I love the oyster itself, but I think what made me fall in love with the oysters were the people. It's always a party when there's a thing, oysters. Right? You don't have a plate of oysters, you know, be sad. You know, it's just how it is. It's just, you know, oysters mean party and the people that do it all across the country. You know, I love oyster sugars in every oyster bar in this country. Now we have that one thing in common, regardless if they've ever stepped foot in the water or

14:27not, you know, somebody who loves an oyster, you know is a good person. You have your arm and a bucket of oysters. We're sitting here talking about it. I feel like we should eat them. I think we should. I think we should. Yeah, for sure. Give me the 101. How do I shock an oyster? Okay. So you have a oyster here and you have, obviously you have a bottom shell and a top shell. So the bottom shell has a cup on it, right? So and the top shell is flat. So you want to stick your knife in the back hinge of where the bottom shell and the top shell meet. Instead of prying, people make that mistake. You want to twist. It's not a lever. It's a door knob. You're making the same motion as you would when you open a door. So right there, there's no cuts. It just look like that top shell fell off somehow. What's your favorite way to eat the oyster? Just like that. Just like that. No, nothing on it. No, you don't need any. Nothing on it at all. Oysters are like people. We're better naked. So you put that on a shirt. I think I got one somewhere like that. So these came in today. You've heard about this Carly Fortune book, eh? Oh, absolutely. I did a lot of work with Carly when she was writing the book.

15:27She called a lot. Asked a lot of questions. Of course, it was her trip to the Time Value Oyster Festival that inspired that book. And she stumbled upon it. And that's kind of where that whole story comes from. So there's a character in there who's a champion oyster shucker. Yeah. Is it you? It's not me. No, it's not. It's you're quick to say that. No, it's not me. I'm sure a way better looking than I am. Easy now. But no, it's a fictional story. Now I will say there's a lot of vocabulary that he uses comes from my conversations with Carly. I still remember the first time that she called me. I didn't know she was. I asked her where she was from. And she said she was from Toronto. And every time somebody says they're from Toronto, my answer is, oh, I'm sorry to hear that. Like my condolences type thing. And of course, the first line that Felix in the book says to her is, I'm sorry to hear that. She stole my line. Are you sure it's not you in the book? Yeah, I'm pretty sure it's not me. Yeah, well, if it is, this guy led a way more interesting like that I had. It was a whole lot going on.

16:28There's a whole lot going on. Yeah, that stuff was definitely made up after that's for sure. What do you think that book is going to do? I mean, already, there are like these benches that have been made and people are coming here having read the book. But now it's being turned into this Netflix series. What do you think that's going to do for me? Yeah. It's going to show a lot of light on the oyster world, which in all honesty, the oyster world starts and ends in West Prince. Prince, they were now. How many oysters did you say you shocked in an hour? 972. I might get nine oysters. Thank you, sir. No problem. That was great. Jeff Noy is the mayor of Tine Valley and the owner of Pearl Valley Oysters. The question is, could he be the real life oyster shocking champion at the center of a new Netflix series? We're heading to the set of that series coming up in our next half hour. At a two hour drive from Tine Valley, we arrive in Charlottown. In the heart of the city is one of the oldest symbols of Canadian unity. For more than a decade, Providence House was covered up with sheeting and scaffolding

17:29for a major restoration project. I meet up with Ed McDonald on lawn. He is a professor emeritus of history at the University of Prince Edward Island. Remind us why this place is called the birthplace of the cradle of Confederation. Well, in September 1864, there was a conference here. And ostensibly, the conference was to discuss a union of the colonies in the Maritimes. The Canadians got wind of this, asked if they could attend, and put forward a sales pitch for a union of all the colonies in British America. That conference is the watershed moment in the story of the creation of our nation-state of Canada, because there was agreement here in principle to a union of the colonies if satisfactory terms could be reached. That is the template from which we built a nation. What was the pitch that was being made to band together? The pitch was that together we could be stronger to defend ourselves against America.

18:36And we have to remember that for much of the 1800s, America was termed the enemy, kind of a frenemy, because we traded a lot with the Americans, but we were at risk of invasion as recently as 1862. So to defend ourselves, we would present a united front. And there was a vision that there could be a country that stretched from sea to sea. There was also the possibility that if we were together, we could build a railway to join the colonies, and that would improve our trade. So there were hard-headed reasons of defense, but also a vision. I mean, this building is going to reopen. And so what is the story you think that it could tell about the country now in 2026? I think a building is a vessel that we fill with meaning. It's a symbol. But it's also literally a place where we can exhibit the past and interpret the past and have a conversation about the past. And history, as we all know, is a dialogue between the present and the past. What do you make of the fact that the building is reopening at a time when the country itself

19:39is not just externally, but internally, is under extraordinary pressure. You have a referendum in Alberta, referendum on a referendum, perhaps. There could be one in Quebec as well. There are many people in this country who feel like the country isn't working for them. And so you have a building that's opening up that's about the promise of the country at a time when the country feels like it's maybe fraying at the edges. I think that's the value of history, isn't it? That history is a way of understanding how we got here to the moment in time that we're at. We can also take hope. Canada has gone through some pretty tough times. We came pretty close to Quebec leaving us. We have had the West alienated in the past. We've gone through World Wars. We've come through trade wars. And one thing we can draw from this building is hope that we can solve these problems, that Canada can do it. The province house is still close to the public, but we were lucky enough to get a private tour. It smells new. It's like new building smells.

20:40So before we go any further, I just want to gather everybody together because there is fresh paint in the building. Chantal McDonald is managing the restoration project for Parks Canada. Every stone in this building has been touched by mason hands, restored, repaired, or replaced. You can imagine when you take a whole building apart, you find treasures along the way. The stone carving is the profile of a face with a kind of a large nose. We're not sure who it might represent. That would vary behind another wall. Behind walls? Yeah, behind plaster. There are very few humans that have put their eyes on that since the day it was carved and you're one of them. So pretty neat. Hey, where do you think? I don't know if we can get past that door. I hope until now. Thank you folks. You know, see if you see provides keys. This is where it all happened. This is the Conviteration Chamber. So it was in this room in 1864 that the delegates to the Charlottown Conference met to discuss

21:41the merits of the Union of the Colonies. What will happen in this room now? Before the building closed, visitors were allowed to stand at that barricade. We decided to make it a little different and actually it has people come into this room to be able to connect with the room and connect with the stories. Their stories about the Charlottown Conference, so Conviteration, as well as those voices from marginalized communities who are not invited into the building. And what do you want people when they come in here? Do you think you have them? I want them to think about this as a country and their role in that country and how we can make it a better place, how we can learn from our mistakes in the past, but also our achievements. So we wanted to be a place of reflection. This is a commemoration, not a celebration, it's a commemoration of something important that happened here, something that was a fundamental aspect of our country. And that's something for each of us as an individual to think about and as a country to think about. You've been listening to the current podcast. My name is Matt Galloway. Thanks for listening.

22:42I'll talk to you soon. For more CBC podcasts, go to cbc.ca slash podcasts.