Fisheries Committee on Oct. 5th, 2010

[Lawrence MacAulay, Liberal, Cardigan, PE]

I'm still here.

[Rodger Cuzner, Liberal, Cape Breton—Canso, NS]

Lawrence first worked on the Fisheries Act a hundred and how many years ago?

This committee has always been collegial, productive, and has worked toward a common purpose. I think the last time I was here they did a little summary. There was one juncture in 2000 when 23 reports had been presented by the committee, and 21 of them had been unanimous. I think that's a pretty substantive body of work done in collaboration with this committee. So it's always been a pleasure to be on this committee, and I look forward to being productive.

Mike, I think you're right on about what we're looking at, as far as being realistic about what we can accomplish here in the next couple of weeks and months.

When the Fisheries Act was brought out the last time, the biggest concern from the fishing community was they didn't believe there had been sufficient consultation. So we could get out in front of that as a committee, take that on as the next big project, and begin the consultation. If that consultation is reflected in the legislation that's brought forward, then maybe it will have a better chance of surviving.

For very different reasons we saw group after group last time saying they weren't consulted and there was no reflection of their industry in the legislation. So I agree with what you're saying.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rodney Weston]

Thank you, Mr. Cuzner.

Mr. MacAulay.

[Lawrence MacAulay, Liberal, Cardigan, PE]

Rodger has said what I want to say, but there's no question that if the Fisheries Act comes, it will take precedence over everything.

We will be travelling, or somebody's going to be travelling, for consultation. I don't think we'll have much choice. That's all I'm going to say. It's a big job to get enough consultation to get agreement in the fisheries community. So we can rate all the other issues, but if a new Fisheries Act comes, that's the issue for us.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rodney Weston]

Thank you, Mr. MacAulay.

Mr. Weston.

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

I'm actually surprised by what Lawrence just said, because I thought that Mike and Rodger were on the right track: low-hanging fruit, things are almost done, get them done. Then the Fisheries Act is overwhelming, large, open-ended, and would push out anything else. So I liked what Mike was saying. Go for those two things and get them done.

We could be in the middle of the Fisheries Act, be suspended by a you-know-what, and it would never get done. Then if we started with the Fisheries Act without finishing off the snow crab and aquaculture, there would be three things not done instead of only one. So I'm disposed to go with Mike and Rodger on that.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rodney Weston]

Thank you, Mr. Weston.

I think the steering committee has heard ample input. If you have any other ideas or thoughts, you might want to convey them to your representative on the steering committee. I think we have lots to work with for the meeting on Thursday. At this point I would suggest that we leave it to our steering committee to come back with a work plan for us a week from today.

Unless there are any further thoughts, I want to take this opportunity to welcome all members to the committee, as pointed out by my namesake. He does ride me hard every now and then.

[An hon. member]

You need it.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rodney Weston]

I agree. My wife tells me that all the time. I need it.

Welcome, Devinder and Ron. I look forward to working with you on the fisheries committee--and Joyce and Rodger. We have a lot of work ahead of us, as you can see. There are some projects, some reports, that are close to being complete, and others that still require a lot of work. So we look forward to your input and thoughts on all of that work as we go forward together.

If we have no further business, I move the meeting adjourned.