Fisheries Committee on May 5th, 2010

[John Weston, Conservative, West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast—Sea to Sky Country, BC]

It must be an incredible task to put together a $2-billion budget and to do it under stringent reviews as you've been doing. Congratulations for getting this far.

If I could go back to aquaculture, which has come up a couple of times, I believe we've heard that there will be some 55 new positions created to take over aquaculture in December. I know that there is a line item for fisheries and aquaculture management, but I'm wondering if there's a specific allocation for those employees.

[David Bevan]

There is. We received incremental funding for the task of taking on that responsibility from the province as a result of the decision of the court. We are in the process of doing the program design. We have the regulations about ready to be prepublished and put into the public domain.

We're actively looking at how to design our program. We have certain elements that are under way in terms of staffing and other elements that are going to be developed very quickly. So we're on track. We have the extra money. I'm not sure if it shows up in our budget or not.

[Roch Huppé]

It doesn't show in our main estimates because it was an off-cycle decision in the last year. It's going to be accessed; actually, there's TB submission being written to access that fund. We have, if I remember, about $12 million set aside for 2010-11. The overall budget is some $30 million.

[John Weston, Conservative, West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast—Sea to Sky Country, BC]

So that doesn't appear in what we have?

[Roch Huppé]

It doesn't appear in the main estimates because we have yet to access that in the fiscal framework.

[John Weston, Conservative, West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast—Sea to Sky Country, BC]

I'm wondering if a budget like this would anticipate the results of the Cohen inquiry. If the Cohen inquiry has implications for the Government of Canada, how do we accommodate that in a budget that may not have anticipated it?

[David Bevan]

Well, we don't have money set aside in anticipation of whatever might come out of the Cohen inquiry. That would have to be something we would respond to at the time we got the recommendations.

[John Weston, Conservative, West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast—Sea to Sky Country, BC]

I guess that answers my next question. Given the large amount of uncertainty around aquaculture and what might come out of the work done by these new employees, there's really nothing in the budget yet that would be triggered by events as they unfold. Is that right?

[David Bevan]

I could put it that way; I think what we're doing is replacing—not necessarily duplicating, but replacing—the programs run by the province, with a couple of exceptions. One is that we're looking at enhancement of requirements for information. Second is more monitoring and controlled-surveillance types of activities by fishery officers. There are add-ons to what was being done by the province with respect to the compliance side and the information side.

That might, obviously, have some response to some recommendations that may come out of the Cohen inquiry, but we are doing that anyway. We are not anticipating anything in particular coming from the Cohen inquiry, because we have to let that process follow its due course and come to its own conclusions.

[John Weston, Conservative, West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast—Sea to Sky Country, BC]

Okay.

Do you expect that DFO is going to have enough employees to take on the new 55-person quota out of Pacific region or national capital region?

[David Bevan]

No, it won't be coming out of the national capital region. Most of that is in the Pacific region. It's an operational program. It's done in the region, so very few positions are going to be here in Ottawa, and those will be ones that are focused on the information management. The vast majority of the positions will be in the region, doing the work that has previously been done by the province, or work similar to that, and, of course, by fishery officers.

[John Weston, Conservative, West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast—Sea to Sky Country, BC]

Okay.

I'll share my time with Ms. O'Neill-Gordon.

Thank you.

[Tilly O'Neill-Gordon, Conservative, Miramichi, NB]

Thank you very much.

I just had one question. The estimates show that the internal services will receive an increase in both operating and capital expenditures for a total increase of $42.129 million. I'm wondering just what this money goes towards. Does it go for more staff or more equipment? Just what is being done with it?

[Roch Huppé]

A great part of it, $38 million, is basically for the increase to the collective agreements, so that's personnel expenses.

[Tilly O'Neill-Gordon, Conservative, Miramichi, NB]

Okay.

That's fine, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rodney Weston]

Thank you very much.

Mr. Byrne, on a point of order.

[Gerry Byrne, Liberal, Humber—St. Barbe—Baie Verte, NL]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I wanted to follow up on a request for production of papers that I had placed before the minister at an earlier session of this committee, regarding access to information pertaining to commercial fishing licences and also permits. That may be a new clarification, but it should include permits as well, in addition to licences pertaining to the not-for-profit sector associations and NGOs.

I had asked the minister--the question was deferred to some of her officials--whether or not that information could indeed be provided to the committee. If I remember correctly, a subsequent answer did not come from the officials but through the parliamentary secretary, I believe, saying that the information was indeed available to the committee and that it was being compiled for submission to the committee.

That was, I dare say, a couple of months ago now, so I was wondering if I could ask, through you, what the status of that particular request is and whether or not it takes two months to be able to find out who actually has fishing licences in this country.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rodney Weston]

Thank you, Mr. Byrne. Your point is taken. The clerk assures me he's been working with the department. As you recall, the department did say that it would take some time. The date they gave to provide that information was May 11. In his last contact, they assured him that they should be able to meet that date, as we last discussed. We should have the information you requested by May 11, which is next Tuesday, I believe.

[Gerry Byrne, Liberal, Humber—St. Barbe—Baie Verte, NL]

Then, Mr. Chair, on that point, today, in a specific request, I asked specifically for the production of papers pertaining to the list of the actual recommendations submitted by the regions to the national headquarters region surrounding the small craft harbours' budgets. Given the Speaker's ruling and given the spirit of cooperation that I'm sure we have from the witnesses, would we be able to get an answer by May 11, and assuming that all is well, those lists by May 11 as well? I ask that through you to the witnesses.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rodney Weston]

Thank you, Mr. Byrne.

I would ask if the witnesses could provide such a list and could report to the clerk on the possibility of providing that list.

[Gerry Byrne, Liberal, Humber—St. Barbe—Baie Verte, NL]

By May 11.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rodney Weston]

By May 11. Sorry.

[David Bevan]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

There's some difference between the two requests. One is pertaining to the allocation that has been taken, and that is coming to the committee by May 11, as stated. The other is advice and we'll have to undertake whether or not that advice can be shared with the committee. We'll try to get you a response to that as soon as possible.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rodney Weston]

Thank you, Mr. Bevan.

[Gerry Byrne, Liberal, Humber—St. Barbe—Baie Verte, NL]

Mr. Chair, I understand also that you've asked the clerk and I assume the researcher as well to follow up on...I do believe I made this request for information some time ago. Will you be able to report to the committee as to whether or not that indeed is a factual statement or that it's factually true...?