Fisheries Committee on Dec. 2nd, 2014

[Marc Grégoire]

Yes, so at this point—

[Ryan Cleary, NDP, St. John's South—Mount Pearl, NL]

You say this is not a concern, so I appreciate the answer.

[Marc Grégoire]

Not at this point in time, no.

[Ryan Cleary, NDP, St. John's South—Mount Pearl, NL]

Mr. King, I have a question for you as well, sir, moving on to another topic. As I said, this is a speed round.

NAFO has recommended moratorium on shrimp in the NAFO zone this year. If the department follows through with the LIFO policy—last in, first out—that 4,000-tonne cut to shrimp is going to have a massive impact on coastal communities in Newfoundland and Labrador. Does the department plan to do any kind of economic assessment of the economic impact if the LIFO policy is followed again?

[Matthew King]

I'll try to be quick. Let me just point out, though, that we will have new science available in February 2015 on the status of northern shrimp stocks in areas 1 to 6. Nevertheless, NAFO did make a decision to effectively close that fishery this year. As I'm sure the member will know, Mr. Chair, the issue of the LIFO policy has been with us since 1995 at least. We did unfortunately have some shrimp reductions this year. LIFO was applied. We'll wait and see what the science advice tells us in 2015, and we'll put advice to the minister as to how she wants to proceed.

[Ryan Cleary, NDP, St. John's South—Mount Pearl, NL]

My specific question was about a study on the economic impact on the coastal communities of Newfoundland and Labrador, yes or no?

[Matthew King]

Sorry, with respect to the NAFO decision...?

[Ryan Cleary, NDP, St. John's South—Mount Pearl, NL]

Yes. If the NAFO decision is followed through on, if there is a 4,000-tonne cut in shrimp and LIFO was followed through on, does your department plan to do an economic assessment of the impact on coastal communities in Newfoundland and Labrador?

[Matthew King]

I don't believe we're in a position to do that right now.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rodney Weston]

Thank you, Mr. Cleary.

Ms. Davidson.

[Patricia Davidson, Conservative, Sarnia—Lambton, ON]

Thanks very much, Mr. Chair, and thanks for being with us again this morning. Welcome to those who are new. We appreciate your being here.

I just want to follow up briefly on a question that Mr. Sopuck was asking regarding the restoration of the Great Lakes. Specifically, the question is that you're showing an increase in transfers in from Environment Canada. Is there extra work that's going to be undertaken now, or is this continuing on with the same work?

[Kevin Stringer]

No, I think it's in response to the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement, which was signed; Environment Canada is the lead. Some of the funds for that went to Environment Canada, and it's being transferred to us. It's largely about aquatic invasive species.

[Patricia Davidson, Conservative, Sarnia—Lambton, ON]

Okay.

Speaking about invasive species, can somebody give me an update on what's happening with the Asian carp measures that are being taken right now? I know that the minister is doing round tables on invasive species, and things are taking place across the province.

[Kevin Stringer]

There is a lot going on in terms of Asian carp.

Do you want Asian carp, or aquatic invasive species writ large, or a bit of both?

[Patricia Davidson, Conservative, Sarnia—Lambton, ON]

A bit of both.

[Kevin Stringer]

Okay.

Let me start with Asian carp. We've talked about that previously with this committee. As you know, a couple of budgets ago we received $17.5 million, over five years, for an Asian carp program. We were able to speak in previous iterations to the objectives of the program, but now we can speak a little bit to some of the actual achievements.

The minister opened an Asian carp lab in Burlington to implement key science activities for the programs, and we have refurbished a genetics lab in Winnipeg to analyze DNA samples. Those labs are now in place for Asian carp. We've also moved ahead with further risk assessments. It was largely based on the first risk assessment that the new program was developed—a risk assessment around bighead and silver carps—but we've now moved ahead with risk assessments on grass carps and black carps. We have further developed a socio-economic impact assessment with respect to the challenge if these actually enter into the Great Lakes.

We've developed relationships with groups that are involved in prevention. I'd note in particular the Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters, who are working with us and getting word out about the challenges and the risks around Asian carp. There are a number of elements in that regard.

We have an agreement now with the Invasive Species Centre in Sault Ste. Marie. They're developing an Asian carp website, developing Facebook, Twitter accounts, etc. Again, it's getting the word out, and increasing the digital footprint of awareness around Asian carp. We're doing research into control techniques, different ways that we can address Asian carp—keeping them out and what we do if and when they actually get in. We are collecting data in various parts around the Great Lakes.

We've established 34 early detection sites, in Lakes Huron, Erie, Ontario, and Superior. We've actually caught, fortunately or unfortunately, one grass carp last year and one grass carp this year, in Canadian waters. They turned out to be triploid, which means that they're aquaculture and not able to reproduce.

We're really pleased to announce that whereas it used to take three to four days—so you'd catch these things, the world would hold its breath while we were finding out about it—our new lab in Burlington is able to do the assessment in two hours. We have the facility to be able to do it now. We've been able to stand down in terms of whether we had to do “a rapid response”, so it really is working.

I'll stop there.

[Patricia Davidson, Conservative, Sarnia—Lambton, ON]

Okay, thank you.

I think in budget 2014 there was funding to implement the national conservation plan. Can you tell me what role DFO plays in that NCP?

[Kevin Stringer]

The national conservation plan is certainly broader than DFO, but DFO does have an important role. For DFO it's really about marine conservation. It's really about continuing the work that we've been undertaking over the last years since 2007, I believe it is. We've invested over $77 million on the health of the oceans initiative, which has been moving forward on marine protected areas in particular, working on identifying areas of interest, moving forward regulatory proposals, working with stakeholders identifying vulnerable marine ecosystems, and establishing marine protected areas.

The second piece, which is becoming a larger piece as we go forward with the next phase, is around marine protected area networks. Whereas our department has done marine protected areas, Environment Canada has done wildlife areas for migratory birds in marine areas, and Parks Canada has done national conservation parks including marine parks. Provinces have set aside areas in ocean spaces and in aquatic areas, and there are well over 800 overall.

The idea now, as opposed to all of us sort of going along identifying what we want to protect, is really getting all the players and the stakeholders around one table and having marine protected area networks looking at whether we have all the representative areas, whether we have all of the areas that need protection, and whether we have sufficient replication, those types of principles. That really is the next phase of the plan.

[Patricia Davidson, Conservative, Sarnia—Lambton, ON]

Thank you very much.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rodney Weston]

Thank you, Ms. Davidson.

Monsieur Lapointe.

[François Lapointe, NDP, Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC]

Thank you, gentlemen.

In 2012, the environment commissioner noted that Canada's marine protected areas were underdeveloped and that progress was extremely slow. That is what he said.

In September 2014, it was discovered that the committee that was supposed to work on creating a marine protected area for the St. Lawrence estuary had never met. Yesterday, we learned that the beluga, which are found in what should be the marine protection area, would now be considered an endangered species.

What resources will Fisheries and Oceans Canada allocate in the next year to address this problem of what I would call the “under-underdevelopment” of marine protection areas? There is so much ground to catch up. Are we finally going to establish stringent targets to achieve short-term results?

[Kevin Stringer]

Thank you for that question.

I will answer in English in order to better express myself.

We did just speak to the national conservation plan initiative, which includes a marine component, and the new investment that's being made with respect to the oceans program is in the supplementary estimates. In terms of the overall oceans management program, the estimates for this year for oceans management identify $30 million ongoing. In my own sector of ecosystems and fisheries management, it's around $7 million or $8 million, and we do have the investment that is being discussed in the supplementary estimates in the answer that I just gave to the previous question about the national conservation plan.

[François Lapointe, NDP, Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC]

Mr. Stringer, could you please tell us what resources would be allocated to once and for all address the major delay in creating marine protection areas? I would like you to speak a little more specifically about the problem I mentioned in my question.

[Kevin Stringer]

We've actually had, I think, some success in terms of creating marine protected areas, but it does take time. The effort to create marine protected areas starts with an assessment of what science we have about ocean spaces writ large, so there's science work done on what are called EBSAs—ecologically and biologically significant areas. What things do we need to protect? Where are the corals? Where are the sponges? Where are the vulnerable marine ecosystems? A significant amount of work is done there.

[François Lapointe, NDP, Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC]

You say that significant work has been done. I'll remind you that the committee that was to have met to discuss the St. Lawrence estuary marine protection area has never met in 10 years. So I am asking you this: Where is the major work that is being done to address this problem?