Evidence of meeting #106 for Fisheries and Oceans in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was chair.
A recording is available from Parliament.
5:15 p.m.
Conservative
Rick Perkins Conservative South Shore—St. Margarets, NS
Well, then sitting there grinning at him, while he's not making a point of order—
5:15 p.m.
Liberal
5:15 p.m.
Conservative
Rick Perkins Conservative South Shore—St. Margarets, NS
Yes, I am because you're not enforcing the rules, Mr. Chair.
5:15 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ken McDonald
Oh, you're going to see the rules enforced going forward, let me tell you.
5:15 p.m.
Conservative
Clifford Small Conservative Coast of Bays—Central—Notre Dame, NL
Mr. Chair, we had the harvesters here about a month or so ago, and I asked the elver harvesters themselves whether it would it be possible to salvage some kind of a season around mid-April or even towards the end of April, because oftentimes the elver fishery continues up towards the end of June.
Mr. Kelloway said earlier that a considerable number of arrests have been made. With such success in arresting poachers on those rivers, maybe it's a good time to evaluate the success of the enforcement that's happened so far and to give the fishery a shot. Those 1,100 jobs could be partially saved this year.
There's another thing. When you pull seafood out of a market, someone else comes in with their seafood and takes your market and you may not get it back. This is very serious, so if there's any way to have a partial season going forward to make a decision quickly....
I've heard a lot of positive things coming out of the minister's office, quite optimistic about the number of arrests that were made, so I'm thinking they must have a lot of the poaching cleaned up based on what we're hearing. Why not give these harvesters a chance to go and make some kind of a living?
5:15 p.m.
Conservative
Rick Perkins Conservative South Shore—St. Margarets, NS
I've waved at you about three times and you acknowledged it.
5:15 p.m.
Conservative
April 18th, 2024 / 5:15 p.m.
Conservative
Rick Perkins Conservative South Shore—St. Margarets, NS
Thank you. It's good to see the enforcement of rules so clearly, Mr. Chair.
On the issue of the actual motion, which is a complete reversal of the motion that I originally proposed in spite of the vote of this committee, the fact is that the original motion and this motion do the opposite. This motion claims that they are actually doing the job, and as we've heard from elver harvesters—apparently you were listening, but you didn't hear it—the enforcement isn't happening to the level that is needed to stop the poaching, at any level of the supply chain.
This motion I will not support, because it actually says that for the government, the Liberal government, Liberal fisheries minister number six is doing as good a job on this as Liberal fisheries ministers numbers four and five. This has been going on for 10 years and number four, number five and number six have screwed up this fishery for 10 years, increasing poaching.
They keep trying the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. They keep closing the fishery, thinking that will take poachers off the river, when all it does is allow for free rein. There is no enforcement after 1 a.m. on the rivers in Nova Scotia. DFO has no enforcement officers on the river. They're pulled off at 1 to 1:30 a.m. every bloody night, and that's when the lawlessness happens. That's when the shots are fired into people's houses. That's when people are terrorized by the criminal organizations doing this, yet all the government wants to do is say that the legal harvesters should stay off the river to some mythical regulations because the criminals doing this—the criminals—will be afraid of regulations.
There's a Fisheries Act now, and licensed harvesters now, that the department can enforce the law on. All they have to do is enforce the law, which for years we've been asking for and the government and the officers remain under-resourced and unable to enforce. Then we wouldn't have the massive crime happening in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia right now because of the incompetence of Liberal fisheries ministers number four, five and six.
This committee is going to try to reinforce the fact that they think, with all this lawlessness going on, with all this crime going on, with all this poaching going on and with not one single exporter and not one single buyer having been arrested to date, that somehow we should throw flowers at the minister—
5:20 p.m.
Conservative
5:20 p.m.
Liberal
Mike Kelloway Liberal Cape Breton—Canso, NS
On a point of order, the social media clip is unfolding as it should, but to say that—
5:20 p.m.
Conservative
Rick Perkins Conservative South Shore—St. Margarets, NS
I'm sorry you're embarrassed by your performance.
5:20 p.m.
Liberal
Mike Kelloway Liberal Cape Breton—Canso, NS
—and talking about flowers and taking the high ground, to say that they're the only people who care about elver fishers and the elver industry is absolutely atrocious. It speaks to the classic right-wing pivot points that only they could care about fishers and that only they could care about the fishery. It is absolutely ridiculous, and it's quite offensive.
5:20 p.m.
Conservative
Rick Perkins Conservative South Shore—St. Margarets, NS
If you care about it, enforce the law for a change. That's what's offensive, and that's a point of debate, which the chair has let go on again.
5:20 p.m.
Some hon. members
Oh, oh!