Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to rise on behalf of the constituents of Saanich—Gulf Islands to speak to this private member's bill to bring forward a fishers bill of rights.
I have a few concerns about this bill. However, I give my qualified support to the member for bringing it forward. I believe some of my concerns can be addressed at the committee level.
The intent of this bill is to bring accountability to the Department of Fisheries and Oceans.
We have travelled to both coasts of this country. In Atlantic Canada we visited some 15 to 20 communities. We visited approximately 15 communities on the west coast. We listened to fishers from all of these communities who raised a number of concerns which consistently involved the department.
The member for New Brunswick Southwest has a very large presence of fishers in his riding and he is trying to offer some protection to them with this bill of rights, to which I give my qualified support.
The intent of what the member is trying to do, first and foremost, is to ensure that there is some form of accountability within the department. We often see a lack of accountability in many areas of government, such as the decision which was brought down a few weeks ago in British Columbia by the judicial system. We need to address accountability within our judicial system when decisions are made that are completely outrageous. I am making reference to the child pornography decision. There are many examples where there is no accountability and we have to do something about that.
I have a concern about the right to compensation. The bill states that if the rights of fishers are abrogated unfairly they have an absolute right to compensation. I do not think we can put that into legislation.
I have always been a strong believer that the fishery must be both environmentally and economically sustainable. I accept the fact that the Department of Fisheries and Oceans is the largest single factor. There are other factors, but without question the Department of Fisheries and Oceans has not been held accountable for the collapse of the cod fishery in Atlantic Canada where we have seen over $2 billion of taxpayers' money being paid to fishermen who sit at home.
There is no question that the fishery was mismanaged, but I do not believe the answer is to send out more money, bad money on top of bad money. The one area of concern I have is with putting something in legislation which would give a group of people the absolute right to compensation. I think that is something that has to be addressed on a case by case basis and we have to be very careful in doing that.
I look forward to addressing that concern at committee. Again I would offer my qualified support for this bill and suggest that we look at it when it comes back from committee to decide if we should support it at that time.