FREDERICTON (GNB) – Online bidding for the right to lease some of New Brunswick's best Atlantic salmon and brook trout waters will begin Wednesday, Feb. 27, Natural Resources Minister Bruce Northrup announced today.

“This is the first time that online bidding has been offered in the 130 years that the province has been holding public auctions for these Crown angling leases,” said Northrup. “Opening up the auction to online bidding allows participation by interested parties from around the world and this has the potential to generate higher revenues for the province and its people.”

The online bidding period will run from Feb. 27 to Tuesday, March 12. On Wednesday, March 13, a live auction will be held in Fredericton and will be open to anyone interested in bidding on a lease. The highest online bidder for each lease will have the right to participate in the live auction via telephone.

The auction is for 17 angling leases on Crown-owned waters, all of which are subject to aboriginal and treaty rights. The leases include 16 stretches along the Restigouche, Miramichi and Tabusintac watershed systems. The remaining lease is for Dicks Lake in Kings County.

Leases take effect April 1, 2013, and are for 10 years. Depending upon the specific location, minimum lease prices range from $2,900 to $87,300 annually, excluding property taxes, and increase annually at the rate of inflation.

If all the angling leases are sold, the provincial government will earn a minimum of $7.5 million in angling leases over the next 10 years.

Among the requirements of lessees is to hire staff to provide warden protection on the stretches leased, which increases conservation of New Brunswick's salmon and trout resources.

There is no provincially owned on-shore infrastructure, such as lodges, associated with the Crown angling leases. However, there are privately-owned lodges and other infrastructure on many of the sites. In those cases, lease holders must also pay the province to lease Crown land on which a structure is located as well as related property taxes.

“The monies generated by these leases help pay for programs and services for all New Brunswickers but the biggest impact is the economic boost to the areas where the leases are located,” said Northrup. “It is estimated that these leases support about 200 jobs during the angling season and pump more than $8 million into local economies.”

New Brunswick has been leasing Crown angling waters to the public continuously since 1883.

The live auction will begin at 10 a.m., Wednesday, March 13, in the K.C. Irving Theatre of the Hugh John Flemming Forestry Centre, 1350 Regent St., Fredericton.

For more information or to place a bid online, visit the department website.


22-02-13