Foreign Affairs Committee on March 21st, 2013

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

Welcome. Pursuant to Standing Order 108(2), we continue our study on Canada's Arctic foreign policy.

We have from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, David Burden, who is the acting regional director general of central and Arctic region, and we have Renée Sauvé, who is the director of global marine and northern affairs, international affairs directorate. Welcome to both of you.

Renée, welcome back again.

We look forward to your opening testimony, and then we'll go from there.

Mr. Burden, we'll turn it over to you, sir.

[David Burden, Acting Regional Director General, Central and Arctic Region, Department of Fisheries and Oceans]

Good morning, and thank you, Mr. Chairman, for providing us the opportunity to be here and assist the committee in your discussions on Canada's Arctic foreign policy.

As the chair said, my name is David Burden, and I'm pleased to be here today as the regional director general of central and Arctic region for Fisheries and Oceans Canada.

I'd like to begin by providing you with a bit of contextual overview of central and Arctic region, Fisheries and Oceans' largest geographic region.

The region encompasses the Northwest Territories, Nunavut, the north slope of Yukon, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and Ontario. If central and Arctic region were its own nation, it would be the seventh largest nation in the world.

Within our region we include 71% of Canada's coastline, 67% of Canada's fresh water, 65% of Canada's marine waters, 64% of Canada's area, and 55% of the population.

The region's activities are important from the perspective of sovereignty, northern commerce, safety and security, sustainability, resource development, and understanding the protection of aquatic ecosystems and habitat.

Co-management is an integral part of how we work in the Arctic, as there are five settled and three unsettled land claims. Each agreement sets out harvesting rights for beneficiaries; provides for the establishment of resource management structures, including for fisheries; sets out the role of those structures; and imposes procedural and substantive requirements on the minister related to the management of fisheries.

Our Arctic science program is coordinated through the National Centre for Arctic Aquatic Research Excellence, which is a virtual centre of expertise that coordinates all our science activities in the north across the department and with external partners.

Most of our interactions with co-management boards are related to their mandated responsibilities, which are focused on managing the harvest of fish, marine mammals, and other wildlife. This means the stock assessment work we carry out is of great interest to them.

We carry out a variety of research activities in both the eastern and western Arctic on marine mammals and marine fish, adjacent to Baffin Island as well

In fresh water our research continues on a number of species, including Dolly Varden, Arctic char, and shortjaw cisco, among others. Our research on the potential impacts of oil and gas development in the Mackenzie Delta and Beaufort Sea is also very important.

Commercial fishing operations in the western Arctic are primarily carried out on inland and freshwater lakes. The largest and best example is the whitefish fishery on Great Slave Lake.

Recreational fisheries in parts of the western Arctic enjoy world-class quality and reputation, resource management staff from the department, and partner agencies, as well as the Government of the Northwest Territories, who are involved in the management of recreational fisheries, the most notable of which occur on the Tree River and Great Slave and Great Bear lakes.

Regional staff also work in partnership with our partner agencies on managing marine mammals. Seals and certain species of whales remain very important components to the diet of a number of Arctic communities.

Fisheries and Oceans Canada's emerging fisheries policy follows the precautionary approach and allows for exploratory fisheries to gather the information necessary to inform fisheries managers about fish stocks and whether a commercial fishery can be supported sustainably by the stock. We also consider land claim agreements and the interests of northern communities in building our knowledge base to determine whether a commercial fishery is viable.

As a result, there is a strong and vibrant emerging fishery in the coastal waters of Nunavut. While there is a solid Arctic char fishery, Greenland halibut and shrimp are the key stocks harvested commercially in Nunavut.

In January 2013 our department presented an updated Greenland halibut integrated fisheries management plan to co-management partners and stakeholders in Iqaluit. The purpose of the integrated management plan is to meet industry and domestic as well as international expectations for demonstrated conservation and sustainability.

This is big business to the Arctic folks. The value of the commercial harvest in the Arctic in 2010 was over $104 million. The largest fish processing facility in the Arctic is in Pangnirtung in Nunavut, with smaller processing capabilities in Cambridge Bay and Hay River in the Northwest Territories.

The Pangnirtung small craft harbour, which is on track to be fully functional this summer, provides the infrastructure foundation for the expanded inshore fishery, and will serve broader community marine-based interests, in particular, the annual community sea lift.

The Cumberland Sound inshore turbot fishery, based out of Pangnirtung, is poised to reach a value of $2.5 million annually, a very viable and sustainable regional economic expansion for the fishery and for the local community. Currently about 350 tonnes of turbot are processed annually in Pangnirtung from the inshore fishery.

A final aspect of the mandate relates to charting in the Arctic. The Canadian Hydrographic Service has the enormous challenge of charting Canada's last frontier. Although the volume of shipping in the Arctic is low compared with the east and west coasts and the Great Lakes, the complexity of navigation is much higher. The Canadian Hydrographic Service is focusing on the main routes into the Arctic communities to ensure effective and safe delivery of northern resupply and economic development.

As the north continues to open up for resource extraction, the need for charts in areas other than community routes becomes more amplified. The Canadian Hydrographic Service is working with a number of resource companies to assist them in assessing routes and charting requirements to enable access to resource sites.

I could go on, Mr. Chair, but this is probably a pretty good place for me to stop and turn it over to Renée. Then we'd be more than pleased to take questions from your committee.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

Thank you.

Ms. Sauvé.

[Renée Sauvé, Director, Global Marine and Northern Affairs, International Affairs Directorate, Department of Fisheries and Oceans]

Good morning, Chair and members of the committee. Thank you for inviting us here today.

We appreciate your interest in this region. It's central to not only Canadian interests but also, as we are seeing, increasingly of interest to the broader international community.

My colleague, Dave Burden, has provided a thorough overview of the fish resources for the Canadian north, their significance, how they are managed, and some of the special co-management considerations. I would like to provide a bit of the international context.

The unprecedented rate of loss of sea ice in the Arctic has certainly focused the world's attention on this region, including from the perspective of increased access to resources. While much attention has been paid to the prospect of access to untapped oil and gas reserves, the question has also been raised, will there will be an international fishery in the Arctic, and if so, are we prepared to manage it?

This topic was part of the agenda of the Arctic Ocean foreign ministers meeting that was held in Quebec in 2010, where coastal states considered issues of common concern. Since then, officials from Canada, Denmark, Norway, Russia, and the United States have informally continued to have a discussion of possible emerging fisheries in the international area of the central Arctic Ocean.

What has become quickly evident is the need for greater information and understanding of current resources and what future scenarios might look like. Fisheries experts have met and have highlighted the need for targeted research as it relates to Arctic fisheries.

Uncertainty remains with respect to fish species distribution and abundance, the northern colonization by fish species, and the effects on ecosystems. Furthermore, the effects of climate change and ocean acidification on the oceanography and primary productivity of the Arctic Ocean are also unknown. More understanding is also needed regarding the impacts of such other activities as shipping, marine tourism, and oil and gas activity on marine ecosystems of the Arctic.

Against this backdrop of uncertainty and accelerated change, experts have indicated that it is difficult to accurately answer the question of whether there will be international fisheries in the Arctic. Nevertheless, some recent investigations have revealed a northward movement of some fish species, notably to the marginal shelf areas as opposed to the deep, less productive central Arctic Ocean.

It is this kind of trend, and the dramatic reduction in the north Pacific pollock fishery prior to the establishment of a fisheries management arrangement, that prompted the 2008 U.S. Senate joint resolution that calls for international efforts to halt commercial fishing activities in the high seas of the Arctic Ocean until there is a fisheries management agreement and an international fisheries management organization for the region.

Canada, like the other three coastal states, has not taken a formal position yet on this specific issue. It is not clear that the central Arctic Ocean will ever sustain commercially viable fisheries, and the question has been raised about the necessity for new agreements or organizations.

In a general sense, all the coastal states agreed, as laid out in the 2008 Ilulissat Declaration, that there already exists a comprehensive legal framework for the Arctic Ocean. A large portion of the Arctic Ocean is governed by national laws and regulations. The central or international part of the Arctic Ocean is governed by an international legal framework, notably the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, a number of bilateral agreements, and the UN fish stocks agreement for straddling and highly migratory fish stocks, if they occur in the future.

Arctic coastal states have specific rights and obligations pursuant to these UN instruments, and bear the responsibility for managing marine living resources in their respective economic zones, including transboundary, straddling, and highly migratory fish stocks.

There have been concerns, especially common in the media, about a perceived rush to exploit natural resources of the Arctic Ocean that may threaten marine ecosystems and cause negative impacts on those ecosystems and the traditional ways of life of northerners. The need to avoid that scenario is well recognized by officials. Canadian officials have indicated the need to be cautious, and understand the concerns of the United States about potential unregulated fishing in the central Arctic Ocean.

Within our own waters and the high seas, Canadian policy supports a precautionary approach to fisheries management that would ensure ecologically and economically sustainable fisheries in the Arctic Ocean.

However, a precautionary approach does not automatically equate to a ban on all fishing activity. The emerging fisheries policy, as mentioned by my colleague, allows for exploratory fisheries in previously unfished areas as a means to establish the scientific basis for assessing fish stocks.

The issue of establishing a regional fisheries management organization or arrangement for the Arctic Ocean needs further consideration. There is still no consensus on whether a regional fisheries management organization is in fact necessary. If, however, it is determined that a regional fisheries management organization is necessary, there are basically two options: to extend an existing one or create a new one.

If the latter is the preferred option, a number of fundamental questions need to be answered. International practice for establishing a regional fisheries management organization is based on historical and existing fishing activity. Considering the absence of any historical commercial fishing activity in the central Arctic Ocean due to ice coverage, whom to engage and how to negotiate such a mechanism presents a unique challenge that the international community would need to face.

As an international ocean area, this implicates, naturally, a broader community of interest beyond just coastal states. The Canadian policy is to ensure a strong and central role for coastal states in fisheries management arrangements, and for this region it will be particularly important to take account of the potential interests of northern communities.

Canadian officials will continue to engage with other Arctic coastal states to consider the range of options for international cooperation in managing potential commercial fisheries activities on the Arctic high seas in order to ensure sustainability of fish stocks and the conservation of their marine ecosystems.

Should there be a consensus among Arctic coastal states to go forward with an international agreement on managing high seas fisheries in the Arctic Ocean, we, in collaboration with Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada, will seek direction from cabinet on a negotiating mandate, and will carry out the necessary formal consultations with northerners.

The coastal states have indicated that they recognize the unique responsibilities and challenges with respect to the future development of the Arctic Ocean. Informal discussions to date suggest that strengthening collaboration in Arctic research and governance of potential commercial fisheries in the Arctic is a shared objective.

That's it, Chair.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

Thank you very much.

We're going to start our first round with the opposition.

Mr. Dewar, for seven minutes, please.

[Paul Dewar, NDP, Ottawa Centre, ON]

Thank you.

Thank you to our witnesses.

As you know, we're studying the Arctic for reasons that have to do with our taking over the chair in the next coming months.

Before I go to that, Mr. Chair, I just want to underline that I had made a request to have the minister here. Hopefully we'll hear back, if we haven't heard back yet, on whether or not she'll be coming to committee.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

We'll have an answer probably...or we can talk about it when we're in—

[Paul Dewar, NDP, Ottawa Centre, ON]

I'm saying that because ,as important as it is to hear from officials, the chair of the Arctic Council will be our minister, and I would hope that we'd hear from our minister.

We were also hoping to hear from some of our allies, partners, some of the countries you mentioned earlier in your report. Sadly, we're not going to hear from them formally at this table.

Let me touch on a couple of things you mentioned. When it comes to the fishery, there is a lot of change happening. You mentioned climate change as being one of the variables. I would say that probably, if you're looking at it from an analytical point of view, it's one of the most important variables in terms of the change. We heard from Iceland, in fact, when they had a delegation here on a separate meeting, with regard to the new fisheries that emerged there that they had not anticipated.

We see, because of the changes in ice, that what we normally would have configured in terms of responsibility will be changing. There are many different projections on that. In other words, what is ice right now will be free-flowing water. This will change, of course, the oversight in terms of fishery management.

You also mentioned, along with climate change, the acidification of the ocean and the need for research. Are we in conversation with, and are we working with, our partners on this issue? As you know, water flows, and this is something that is affecting other countries.

We're seized with the issues around the Arctic as it relates to foreign affairs and to the multilateral engagement we have with our partners. Can you tell me if we are engaged with our partners on joint research on acidification? If so, whom, and to what degree?

[Renée Sauvé]

I can comment a bit on that. Again, I'm not with our science group, but I do have a role with the Arctic Council marine working group, so I am a bit familiar with different activities. The short answer is yes, we're very much engaged.

As you mentioned, Mr. Dewar, the Arctic Ocean is our smallest of the five oceans on the planet. There's a lot of domestic jurisdiction in there, so there is very much a vested interest that, as we have this common resource, we work together. We see a lot of effort, particularly coming through the Arctic Council in its science-based working groups. There is the Arctic monitoring and assessment program that is just completing a study on acidification in the Arctic Ocean. Our scientists in our department have been directly engaged with the experts from the other Arctic Council countries on that report.

[Paul Dewar, NDP, Ottawa Centre, ON]

Who's the lead on that? Is there a country that is leading that, or is it just being held by the Arctic Council committee structure?

[Renée Sauvé]

No. The Arctic Council is very project driven—

[Paul Dewar, NDP, Ottawa Centre, ON]

Yes.

[Renée Sauvé]

—and typically the different countries step up to be the lead or the co-lead on different projects. If I remember correctly, on that project Norway is a co-lead, so they definitely are taking a strong—

[Paul Dewar, NDP, Ottawa Centre, ON]

So we're involved, but we're not one of the co-leaders at this point.

[Renée Sauvé]

Not to my recollection.

[Paul Dewar, NDP, Ottawa Centre, ON]

If you could provide that information to the committee, that would be great.

Mr. Burden, on mapping, we've heard time and time again that it's urgent, when you take a look at the things that are happening in the north and the changes that are happening. We see what other countries are doing, and certainly Russia is an example, where they are charting their course, literally. They're moving ahead with the northern route. Obviously, their mapping is further advanced than ours.

Can you tell me from your perspective what you know and what the plans are in terms of ramping that up? At the last committee meeting and at other committee meetings we've heard that it's something we need to game up on. Can you give us some suggestions? We're looking for recommendations as to how we can speed up the mapping.

[David Burden]

Thank you for that question.

It's an area that is of great concern to us in the department. I think you've had folks from Transport and our coast guard colleagues here earlier speaking about that.

We've done great partnership in that, as Renée said, in some of our other scientific activities. We've done an awful lot of work with the Americans and with our Icelandic neighbours to do joint surveying and mapping work. Using their assets and using our assets, we can cover a lot more area.

We're not the only ones who are not as well charted in the northern reaches as we find and are used to in the southern reaches, but we are making really good progress on this. In the past, we've used vessels of opportunity. We've been using the coast guard and DND. Now we have assets from the Nunavut government that we're using, and that's allowing us to get into communities in reaches that we can't get into with our heavy icebreakers. We're getting information that's going to be more useful on a day-to-day basis for the locals.

One of the things that we're doing a lot of work on with the Canadian Space Agency and others is we're using other technologies rather than shipboard platforms. That's paying huge dividends for us, because we don't really need to try to map the Arctic the way we're used to mapping things in the southern reaches. As long as you know that you have a lot of water beneath you, it doesn't really matter. After you're over 300 metres, does it matter, from a ship's perspective, that it goes to 600? We can use technologies like lidar and other emerging techniques that are much more efficient and allow us to cover a much broader area in considerably less time—

[Paul Dewar, NDP, Ottawa Centre, ON]

I'm sorry to interrupt you, but when you look at the mapping, there are the concerns that Ms. Sauvé had about oil and gas, about that balance, right? There's a lot of interest, obviously, in what's underneath and the energy prospects there.

Others are there, as we know. You can see maps of where the oil and gas are. Is that being folded into the configurations that you're doing? I'm assuming yes.

[David Burden]

Yes.

[Paul Dewar, NDP, Ottawa Centre, ON]

Do you have access to that?

[David Burden]

I can give you an example. Maybe that's the better way.

We have the work that's going on in Mary River for the Baffinland project. We're looking at iron ore coming out of there on shipments throughout the year. These are in waters in which to this point there hasn't been a lot of marine traffic. In partnership with the proponent, we've mapped out areas where they would want preferred routes, where they will provide data and we will use our capabilities, because we have to sign off on the charts.

We are looking at it. There's a lot of work to do. Clearly, if a proponent is looking at going in there and exploiting our natural resources, there's an expectation that they can contribute to some of the costs to offset this. It has been done in the south. Voisey's Bay is an example that comes to my mind. It's something that I've been talking to my folks about doing in the north. That's one example where we've actually done it.

[Paul Dewar, NDP, Ottawa Centre, ON]

I know Google Maps is up there now, too.

[David Burden]

Yes, they were up in Iqaluit this week.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

Excellent. Thank you very much.

Mr. Dechert, go ahead for seven minutes, please.

[Bob Dechert, Conservative, Mississauga—Erindale, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you to our guests for being here this morning.

I'd like to ask Ms. Sauvé some questions about the Arctic fishing industry, nascent as it may be.

You mentioned that you didn't think there would be a commercially viable, or it was doubtful there'd soon be a commercially viable fishing industry in the Arctic Ocean. Can you tell us why that is? If I have that wrong, could you let me know when you think that might develop?