Fisheries committee  The system that we have put in place is within a global approach that we have for our lobster fisheries. The purpose is obviously to protect the environment that our fishermen are working within, and also to protect their future. Fishermen don't have any control over the prices and so on, so it was essential for them to have a global approach to support their stocks and their environment, to get the MSC certification and put that forward as a guarantee for the end consumer, because that represents a lot of investments, millions of dollars over the years from the fishermen to put those first traceability steps and identification of origin for the end consumer.

Fisheries committee  One of the most important things to do in the immediate future is to really promote the domestic market and develop shorter supply chains that provide a higher level of traceability. The fewer intermediaries between the fishers and the final consumer, the easier it is to track the various transitional steps for the fish.

Fisheries committee  You're right. For example, for snow crab it's extremely difficult. To my knowledge, there is no snow crab traceability program currently in place at the level of the fishermen. In order to trace this kind of seafood, one would need to really work by “lot”—I'm not sure how to say it in English—right from the boat, which will require the fishermen to develop certain logistics on their boat.

Fisheries committee  No, there is none that I'm aware of.

Fisheries committee  This model was attempted quite a few years ago by the Magdalen Islands fisheries, but they didn't pursue it because it is relatively costly and has quite a lot of implications for the fishermen in the beginning. It is also costly to provide them [Inaudible—Editor], etc. I'm aware that some traceability systems have been attempted in Nova Scotia, and also in British Columbia, but more at the distribution level.

Fisheries committee  Yes, certainly, and I'll give you the example of the Gaspé lobster fishermen's situation in 2020, at the start of the pandemic. Because our lobster was identifiable, we were able to get the support of the distributors, such as Metro, who were able to put forward in their retail shops identifiable Quebec products.

Fisheries committee  Yes, you are.

Fisheries committee  The e-log response to DFO's requirements followed the declaration of the capture done by DFO. We worked on two projects for the traceability. One was with Metro, actually, and I think that we were together on the working groups, weren't we? One of the aspects was clearly to get a connection with the computing systems and the various software used throughout the value chain, how they could collect those data and how the data could be transmitted from one actor of the value chain to the other, knowing that the basis was the e-log system.

Fisheries committee  The elastic bands are actually removed or replaced. The distribution chain's fish seller claims it's Gaspé lobster, but there's no tag to prove it. The elastic bands bear the stamp of the chain's distributor, which handles all the logistics involved in allocating lots among the various stores.

Fisheries committee  My understanding is that the provinces are responsible for everything related to processing and marketing. As that falls within their areas of jurisdiction and as traceability is an issue that affects the marketing of these products, I believe it is essential for the provinces to be playing a key role in implementing a traceability system.

Fisheries committee  As noted earlier, the legislation doesn't guarantee truth in labelling. It's extremely complicated to follow what goes on in the value chain. Individual stakeholders are often isolated. In a case like Costco, it's very hard for the producer or end consumer to pursue a complaint.

Fisheries committee  As you see, I'm not working for the Magdalen Islands lobster fishermen. In 2017 Costco did a big promotion about two weeks before the Magdalen Islands lobster fishery opened. They were selling on site, in their shops, with big banners...“Magdalen Islands lobster”, etc., which clearly could not be possible given the boats had not gone out yet.

Fisheries committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. My name is Claire Canet, and I have been a project officer at the Regroupement des pêcheurs professionnels du sud de la Gaspésie, or RPPSG, since 2017. The acronym is the same in English and French. More specifically, I manage projects involving the traceability of Gaspé lobster and new technology tools, such as the JOBEL electronic logbook for reporting catches, which are the cornerstone of any seafood products traceability system.

Fisheries committee  One of the things that could be added to the Fisheries Act is the economics of the fishery as applied to licence holders. This is not in the Fisheries Act, of course, because the Department of Fisheries and Oceans does not have an economic mandate. So it is important to include the economic aspects of the fishery in the Fisheries Act.

Fisheries committee  Yes. One of the core issues relating to the protection of owner-operators is that we are protecting a diversity of independent enterprises. When we don't protect that and that socio-economic fabric, and instead go into corporatization in the hands of one, two or three big groups, automatically we then see another economical logic going into it.