Fishers will have to hold off on selecting a new route to sell their catch.

A bill ending the Freshwater Fish Marketing Corporation's Monopoly has been delayed thanks to Manitoba's NDP Party. Freshwater's monopoly was scheduled to end on July 1st.

"The bill has been challenged by the opposition and will now be debated in the Fall Session from September to December," says Alan Gaudry, Lake Manitoba Commercial Fishermen's South Basin Chair. "I'm hoping the results will be the bill will pass and the monopoly will end for Manitoba. We're a little disappointed because we were looking forward to the July 1st deadline but now it's delayed until the fall. We're still optimistic it'll get passed."

The NDP is challenging the bill because their policy is to have a single seller for the province, and the monopoly is in support of that initiative.

"The fishing issues shouldn't be up to politicians it should be up to the businesses and business owners," says Gaudry. "It shouldn't be such a political football that's being thrown around and we're the ones kept in limbo. It's not right. It should be dealt with, and they should let business be business."

Gaudry says as for the summer of fishing, they'll be approaching it like it's normal status quo.

"It's all under the monopoly until the law changes, and we're meeting with the three or four fish companies on April 18th. They're coming to St. Laurent to give us their presentations on what they're proposing to bring once open market is ready for business. Now we don't know where they stand with this delay, will they move forward or will they put everything on hold. So we'll know more if they plan to go ahead and build a plant for when the bill was passed."

Gaudry adds MLA's are busy at the Legislature during the day so they hope to have another meeting with them once they have more answers in June. They'll be hosting a meeting for fishers and businesses on April 18th in St. Laurent.