Fisheries committee  I think it has to do with serious harm, particularly. For instance, we have a facility at Nova Scotia Power on a river than has both inner Bay of Fundy salmon, which is a species at risk, as well as Gaspereau River salmon. “Serious harm” means death of fish as well as permanent destruction or alteration of habitat.

Fisheries committee  It's not clear. We haven't defined.... We're sort of defining as we go along. We go to DFO, and our definition and attempt to do the right thing rests on how we relate to DFO, what we can come up with in terms of stewardship and partnership, and how we can offset in terms of things like live gene banking.

Fisheries committee  Our understanding from Fisheries and Oceans Canada is that, if it's one fish, we should be reporting it. What it doesn't say in the act—it's not specific—is how and when you report it prior to that. What we've done is report for our thermal stations. We actually give the notification in advance, and we say that, anything over and above that, we will report to the emergency line.

Fisheries committee  Thank you so much. I think one of the other areas that could be used is fisheries management objectives under section 6. Those clearly need defining at a regional level. We're really struggling with working out what that means, without having a clear definition.

Fisheries committee  We would like the purpose of the act.... Most modern acts—and you'll see it in the Oceans Act—have the purpose in their preamble, so it is very clear as to why the act is being implemented. The definition of “sustainability” is really a housekeeping thing to ensure that people understand what that is.

Fisheries committee  I think one of the concerns we've had, and I think it needs to be recognized, is that the new act has only been in place for four years. I think for the first two years DFO was trying to work out what it meant, so a lot of that created uncertainty for us. Also, obviously the staff workforce adjustment created even more uncertainty.

Fisheries committee  That means we can come up with some really innovative solutions for that. It's not based on like-for-like habitat, although that is one of the considerations. It includes things like stocking, and it includes things like.... It opens it up for very modern and innovative approaches.

Fisheries committee  Sure. I'll take that. One of the things that we have strongly recommended is defining a purpose of the act. The intention is that the purpose of the act be the sustainability of the fisheries, but it's no use having a purpose without defining it in the act itself. In a sense, it's a bit of a housekeeping requirement, where we recommend that the sustainability of a fishery is the ongoing viability of a fishery.

Fisheries committee  Sure. I'm with Nova Scotia Power, and we found the self-reporting to be quite onerous because every time there's a fish mortality, we are required to report. As soon as we become aware of a fish mortality, we look to see what happened and we phone the emergency line to ensure that we report on it.

Fisheries committee  I really like what we're seeing on the offsetting side. DFO has developed a policy for offsetting that allows for productivity.

Fisheries committee  Thank you, Francis. In the interest of time I will provide a quick overview of our recommendations. Additional details can be found in the CEA's written submission. I will start with the three recommendations for amending the act itself. Firstly, we believe that the Fisheries Act requires a clear statement of its purpose and the principles that guide its application.