Fisheries Committee on Nov. 28th, 2013

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

Thank you.

I'd like to ask, probably Mr. Grégoire, about the procurement for the new Canadian Coast Guard small vessels and the search and rescue lifeboats. It says in number 10 on this chart that it's funding for the planning stage. Could you tell me what the planning stage is, and where does that lead us?

[Marc Grégoire]

Certainly. It's preparing the documentation. It's preparing the engineering documents, the naval architect documents—all of those steps. In the case of the search and rescue boats, we are virtually ready to go with a request for proposal early in 2014. With the rest of the vessels, it's preparing the work.

So the various projects are at various stages. There are some specialty vessels in the package, some science vessels. The preparatory work involves meeting with the stakeholders, meeting with the clients—in this case with scientists—and all of that work that leads to the operational requirements of a specific vessel, the next phase being the design of that vessel.

In the specific case of the SAR lifeboats, we have completed the design and we're just about ready to go.

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

Along the same line, we talk about the project definition phase to renew the helicopter fleet. Could you tell us about that, please?

[Marc Grégoire]

Certainly. This work has been done with Transport Canada, which actually operates our helicopters. In the fiscal framework, as Monsieur Bombardier explained earlier, we have some money reserved for 24 helicopters. That's up to 22 light and medium helicopters in total, plus two for the future polar icebreaker. The money we would get through the supplementary estimates (B) is to do the preparatory work to be able to launch an RFP for the medium helicopters, which are next. We already did that for the light helicopters. We expect to launch the RFP, the request for proposal, in January for the medium-sized helicopters.

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

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rodney Weston]

Thank you, Ms. Davidson.

Mr. MacAulay.

[Lawrence MacAulay, Liberal, Cardigan, PE]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

I'd like you to comment on the WTO decision to uphold the European ban on seal products. What action will you be taking?

It's true, I believe, that we have lost markets over the last four or five years in the United States, Mexico, Russia, and China. Why? When you look at Russia, they have a seal hunt of their own. Here we have the WTO upholding this ban.

What effect would the European free trade deal have on this?

And also, if you can answer, are the seals the biggest consumer of fish in the world today or not?

[David Bevan]

I can't say in the world.

[Lawrence MacAulay, Liberal, Cardigan, PE]

Are they close?

[David Bevan]

Certainly they are the biggest consumers in Canadian Atlantic waters, relevant to fishing exploitation, at least. I can't speak to the whole ecosystem. If you look at the biomass, they might be there, but if you look at individual fish, you can't say, because they go through larval stages.

With respect to access to markets, seal pelts used to be a lot easier to market than they are now, but I would point out that in the past few years there have been sales of tens of thousands of pelts and meat and oil.

The nature of the decision of the WTO does leave a lot of questions. It leaves a great many questions that require, in the opinion of many, clarification through an appeal. It said that there were in fact unfair trade practices, but they were based on moral arguments. Those are very vague. That's what I think would have to be explored in terms of a question to be considered for appeal to another level. That's not yet a final decision, but it is something that is a significant concern.

[Lawrence MacAulay, Liberal, Cardigan, PE]

Are others subject to the moral argument too, like Russia?

[David Bevan]

That's part of the question. And then where does that apply and what kinds of other products would it apply to? Those are the questions that I think are outstanding and would require some clarification if it is decided we need to appeal that kind of decision to a different level.

[Lawrence MacAulay, Liberal, Cardigan, PE]

Why did we lose all the markets over the last few years?

[David Bevan]

There has been a very well-funded concerted campaign on the part of a number of groups to intentionally attack those markets and our access to markets. That is just the reality. As I said, however, we have been marketing tens of thousands of seal products.

[Lawrence MacAulay, Liberal, Cardigan, PE]

Have they attacked the Russians?

[David Bevan]

They went into the Russian market, obviously, and had some influence there, but the answer to that is there are still hunts going on in a great many areas, smaller obviously, but the seals are killed in various parts of Europe and various other locations that are taking the approach that they don't want commercial products on the one hand, but they are culling or killing seals on the other.

[Lawrence MacAulay, Liberal, Cardigan, PE]

Thank you very much.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rodney Weston]

Thank you, Mr. MacAulay.

Gentlemen, I want to thank you for appearing before our committee today. I know you said you had planned to be here for an hour, and I want to thank you for your patience while we went through several questions. We certainly do appreciate your time.

[Matthew King]

If I could, Mr. Chair, I would like to make one correction to an answer to an earlier question on the number of recommendations related to Justice Cohen's report. I believe I said 12 or a dozen were being followed. I actually misread my notes. It's seven, but I'm still happy to provide them to the committee.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rodney Weston]

You will provide a briefing note through the clerk, if you don't mind, Deputy.

[Matthew King]

Yes.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rodney Weston]

Thank you very much.

This committee stands adjourned.