{"id":356,"date":"2008-11-13T04:53:00","date_gmt":"2008-11-13T09:53:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/itn.mattrock.ca\/2008\/11\/13\/disgruntled-fishing-outfitters-put-canada-on-notice\/"},"modified":"2013-02-08T05:03:30","modified_gmt":"2013-02-08T11:03:30","slug":"disgruntled-fishing-outfitters-put-canada-on-notice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/itn\/2008\/11\/13\/disgruntled-fishing-outfitters-put-canada-on-notice\/","title":{"rendered":"Disgruntled fishing outfitters put Canada on notice"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Damon Vis-Dunbar<br \/>\n13 November 2008<br \/>\n<\/strong><br \/>\nThe Canadian government has been sent two letters from outdoor tour companies signaling intent to sue for alleged breaches of the North American Free Trade Agreement. Both outfitters complain that their businesses suffered when the Province of Quebec changed the rules for distributing fishing licenses.<\/p>\n<p>The two businesses led American tourists on fishing trips in the rivers of Quebec.\u00a0 As part of the service they offered, fishing licenses would obtained by lottery, and then transferred to clients. However, in an effort to curb fishing activity, the Province of Quebec adjusted the lottery system; as of 2006, licenses could not be obtained by one individual and transferred to another.<\/p>\n<p>The companies complain that they invested in their businesses on the basis that licenses could be transferred to clients, and thus are owed compensation for what amounts to expropriation of their investments.<\/p>\n<p>William Jay Greiner and Malbaie River Outfitters filed their notice of intent to submit a <span class='tooltipsall tooltipsincontent classtoolTips19'>NAFTA<\/span> claim in September, while David Bishop followed up with his letter just under a month later. They are both represented by the same New York-based lawyer.<\/p>\n<p>The Canadian government has received four so-called Notices of Intent since July 2008. These letters must be delivered before an arbitration claim can be submitted under NAFTA\u2019s chapter on investment. Nonetheless, not all letters of intent lead to arbitration.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Sources:<br \/>\n<\/strong><br \/>\nNotice of intent to submit a claim to arbitration pursuant to Chapter Eleven of the North American Free Trade Agreement, William Jay Greiner and Malbaie River Outfitters v. Government of Canada, available at:\u00a0 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.international.gc.ca\/trade-agreements-accords-commerciaux\/disp-diff\/william_archive.aspx?lang=en\">http:\/\/www.international.gc.ca\/trade-agreements-accords-commerciaux\/disp-diff\/william_archive.aspx?lang=en<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Notice of intent to submit a claim to arbitration pursuant to Chapter Eleven of the North American Free Trade Agreement, David Bishop v. Government of Canada, available at:<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.international.gc.ca\/trade-agreements-accords-commerciaux\/disp-diff\/david_archive.aspx?lang=en\">http:\/\/www.international.gc.ca\/trade-agreements-accords-commerciaux\/disp-diff\/david_archive.aspx?lang=en<\/a><\/p>\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips19','North American Free Trade Agreement'); <\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips63','Bilateral investment treaty'); <\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips65','East African community'); <\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips70','free trade agreement'); <\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips116','European Commission'); <\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips118','Union europ\u00e9enne'); <\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips119','Uni\u00f3n Europea'); <\/script>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Damon Vis-Dunbar 13 November 2008 The Canadian government has been sent two letters from outdoor tour companies signaling intent to sue for alleged breaches of the North American Free [&hellip;]<script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips65','East African community'); <\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips118','Union europ\u00e9enne'); <\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips119','Uni\u00f3n Europea'); <\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":15869,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1989,1964,2108],"class_list":["post-356","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-itn","tag-expropriation","tag-nafta","tag-tourism"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/itn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/itn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/itn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/itn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/itn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=356"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/itn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/itn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15869"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/itn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=356"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/itn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=356"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/itn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=356"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}