by Marc Laframboise, Communications Services Provider, AICFI/DFO

The south shore of the Gaspé Peninsula is home to the Gesgapegiag First Nation. Located at the intersection of the Gesgapegiag River estuary and the Bay of Chaleur, this First Nation of close to 700 residents is in the process of building a growing and diversified commercial fishery. Most recently, the First Nation invested in a lobster trucking operation and a retail seafood store which had its official opening in June of this year.

These new businesses have created seasonal employment for 14 individuals. The retail lobster operation known as the Gesgapegiag Lobster Hut currently employs 11 people while the trucking business has created jobs for a manager and two certified Class 3 drivers. Both businesses are 100 percent owned by the Micmacs of Gesgapegiag Band. With the vast majority of band members under the age of forty, job creation is the top priority of the Band Council.

The First Nation currently employs 28 fishermen and fisherman’s helpers who harvest lobster, shrimp and crab off the coast of the Gaspé Peninsula. The community’s diversification business plan included a strategy to find a partner that would store large volumes of live lobster in special tanks designed for that purpose. They found a partner down the road in Shigawake that owns a major tank storage business. With that piece of the puzzle in place, the First Nation’s economic development plan was ready to go.

Every day this past summer during the ten week lobster harvestin ...