Environment Committee on Feb. 13th, 2014

[Trevor Swerdfager, Assistant Deputy Minister, Ecosystems and Fisheries Management, Department of Fisheries and Oceans]

You pronounced it very well, thank you. It's somewhat unusual—my name, I mean.

[Voices]

Oh, oh!

[Trevor Swerdfager]

David will actually lead our remarks for us.

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

Good afternoon and thank you for providing Fisheries and Oceans the opportunity to speak to the committee on the water quality issues of the Great Lakes basin.

I am Dave Burden, the regional director general for the department's central and Arctic region, which includes the Great Lakes. With me today is Trevor Swerdfager, our assistant deputy minister of ecosystems and fisheries management operations, and Patrice Simon, from our environment and biodiversity science sector.

Fisheries and Oceans Canada is the lead federal department responsible for managing Canada's commercial, recreational, and aboriginal fisheries, which it does by supporting strong economic growth in our aquatic and fisheries sectors and contributing to clean and healthy sustainable aquatic ecosystems.

The Great Lakes commercial and recreational fisheries contribute substantially to the economy. In 2011 approximately 12,000 tonnes of fish were commercially harvested from the Great Lakes, generating an estimated landed value of $33.6 million. With processing and sales to food stores and restaurants in Ontario, the United States, and around the world, the industry's contribution to the economy was about $234 million Canadian in 2011. The total economic contribution of the recreational and commercial fisheries through spinoffs in the Great Lakes is an estimated $8.3 billion U.S.

Such water quality concerns as sediment, contaminants, and nutrients represent a threat to nearly all commercial, recreational, and aboriginal fisheries that depend on healthy food webs and ecosystems. As such, DFO shares the commitments of the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement, specifically the objectives of supporting healthy and productive wetlands and habitats to sustain resilient populations of native species free from the threat of aquatic invasive species.

Under the Great Lakes action plan, in partnership with Environment Canada, DFO science delivers critical assessments on the status of fish populations, fish habitat, and the food chain to help ensure the success of restoring areas of concern identified in the water quality agreement.

The renewed Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement also includes a new annex focused on the prevention of aquatic invasive species, and where possible, reducing the impact of the ones that have become established. More than 182 aquatic invasive species have been found in the Great Lakes, and many species that have established and caused negative impact are well known, including sea lamprey, round goby, and zebra mussels.

For more than 50 years, working in coordination with the United States through the Great Lakes Fishery Commission, DFO has delivered the world's largest ongoing invasive species control program suppressing sea lamprey in the Great Lakes. Without this control program, successful restoration and perpetuation of commercial and recreational fisheries and the $1.2 billion they contribute to the Canadian economy would not have been possible. Although the control of sea lamprey is a success story, it also comes at a considerable cost.

Bighead and silver carp are also issues in the Great Lakes. Two of the Asian carp species pose a significant threat to the Great Lakes and have been making their way northwards from the Mississippi River basin towards our Great Lakes. These species have been responsible for the decimation of the commercial fisheries in the Mississippi River basin.

Another Asian carp species, the grass carp, has recently been found to have spawned in the American waters of the Lake Erie basin. However, more information is required to see if there is any establishment of the species, and of course the game is not lost with a few individual fish found in the waters. DFO, along with our domestic and American colleagues, remains vigilant in finding and removing those individuals from the system immediately.

In 2012, Fisheries and Oceans announced five years of funding for a proactive program for Asian carp in the Great Lakes. The program consists of four pillars: prevention, early warning, response, and management. The program has had many successes to date, such as the development of partnerships and outreach to the Canadian public about the threat posed by Asian carp, development of early detection and surveillance sites along the Great Lakes, and the successful removal of two infertile grass carps in Canadian waters. We are also embarking on a binational risk assessment for grass carp, in concert with the White House-led Asian carp regional coordinating committee, to provide key science advice on the specific threats posed by this species for managers and decision-makers on the Great Lakes.

Unmanaged ballast water has historically been a very important vector of invasive species to the Great Lakes. With the implementation of mandatory science-based ballast water regulations for vessels arriving to the Great Lakes from outside Canadian waters, the risk of ship-mediated invasions in the Great Lakes has been greatly reduced, but not eliminated. DFO continues to conduct research on this pathway and support Transport Canada in their regulatory work.

DFO is also currently drafting national aquatic invasive species regulations, with a goal of preventing the introduction and establishment of high-risk aquatic invasive species. We aim to have this regulation published in the spring of 2014.

Our department is also a signatory to the Great Lakes Fishery Commission's joint action plan, which ensures that all jurisdictions with management authority work together to protect, restore, and sustain fisheries of common concern in the shared Great Lakes. Fisheries and Oceans provides scientific and technical input in the setting of fish community objectives and shared objectives for fisheries on the Great Lakes.

While the Province of Ontario leads the management of fisheries in the province, sustaining fisheries and remediating fish habitat is a shared responsibility between our department and the Ministry of Natural Resources. We collaborate through the Canada-Ontario Fisheries Advisory Board to deliver the management and science to protect and enhance our fish populations and fisheries. The board provides the basis for collaboration on protection of fish habitat and fisheries; collaborative aquatic invasive species monitoring and response efforts, like those for the Asian carp; coordination of aquaculture management; and collaborative science programs.

DFO also supports the restoration, rebuilding and rehabilitating of recreational fisheries habitat through the recreational fisheries conservation partnerships program, which in 2013 allocated approximately $1.3 million of eligible funds for recreational fisheries enhancement work in the Great Lakes watershed. As we saw earlier this week, the budget offered additional funding for this program, and we look forward to new projects and new partnerships in the coming years.

Fisheries and Oceans also collaborates with a number of partners to protect lake habitat that supports our fisheries. Aquatic Habitat Toronto is a partnership of municipal, provincial, and federal agencies with a vested interest in improving aquatic habitat on the Toronto waterfront. DFO in cooperation with the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, Toronto and regional conservation groups, Waterfront Toronto, Environment Canada, and the City of Toronto are responsible for the implementation of the Toronto waterfront aquatic habitat restoration strategy, which involves habitat mitigation, restoration, and supporting science.

Another great example of work we're doing is lidar mapping. With this initiative we have been able to make a critical start at efforts to map the depths and the contours of the very near shore in some very key areas in the Lake Huron and Georgian Bay areas. This new effort meets a number of critical needs under the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement, and goes beyond that. Along with creating a new baseline inventory of habitat to support fisheries, this data provide new information to help navigation and shoreline adaptation to changes in water depth for DFO and our colleagues at Environment Canada.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for inviting us to speak this afternoon. We'd be pleased to take questions from the committee.

[The Chair, Conservative, Harold Albrecht]

Thank you, Mr. Burden.

We're going to move immediately to our seven-minute rounds of questioning.

We're going to begin with Mr. Woodworth.

[Stephen Woodworth, Conservative, Kitchener Centre, ON]

My thanks to the witnesses for their input thus far. It's a whole lot of information for us to take in, in a short sitting, so I'm going to try to pick off a few things here and there.

I'll begin with Mr. Burden.

We heard earlier about the designation of a variety of areas of concern in the Great Lakes area. I wondered if DFO had input into those. If so, what kinds of factors would be used by DFO to reach a conclusion that a specific area was an area of concern?

[David Burden]

All of our work related to area concerns is a very cooperative venture. We work hand in hand with Environment Canada and obviously with our domestic partners such as Ontario under the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement. Our department is involved in this work. We have a support role for Environment Canada on these.

I'm not quite sure how much further you'd like me to go on that, other than to say that all of the work is being done in a cooperative fashion.

[Stephen Woodworth, Conservative, Kitchener Centre, ON]

Okay.

I also was interested in the $1.3 million that you mentioned relating to eligible funding for recreational fisheries enhancement work. Do you have with you any specifics so that you could give us a bit of an overview of what kinds of projects that has resulted in?

[David Burden]

As I said, that $1.3 million was the money that was invested in the Great Lakes basin. There were a number of projects.

I don't know, Trevor, if you have some specifics on the program as it relates to the specifics in community groups.

[Trevor Swerdfager]

There's quite a range of activities that are undertaken. The focus is very much on recreational fisheries and specifically related to aquatic habitat restoration. It's about a $5-million program nationally. It's run entirely on a leverage basis so that each dollar the federal government puts in, so far at least, is returned at about $2.50 to $3, depending on where it is. To give you examples, they range from fairly small stream-based, restoration-type projects, stream-bed stabilization, a number of things, all around the riparian and aquatic habitat, through to some much more substantial undertakings, primarily in the Prairies where some of the bigger multi-partner initiatives are.

I guess I would summarize it by saying in terms of the nature of the projects undertaken, they're very much boots on the ground, tangible things. There's nothing in there for planning, outreach, communication—and I don't want to sound pejorative—that sort of softer stuff. It's all very nuts and bolts type of stuff in the water.

[Stephen Woodworth, Conservative, Kitchener Centre, ON]

I also wondered if DFO has any information about changes, either for better or for worse, in the commercial catch coming out of the Great Lakes. You mentioned the figure for 2011. I wonder if you could give us an idea of the trend line on that.

[David Burden]

I think probably the data I provided is the most current data I have at my disposal today, Mr. Chair, but we could provide the committee with additional information to help address that question for you.

[Stephen Woodworth, Conservative, Kitchener Centre, ON]

Sure. I guess what I'm wondering about is if the efforts that have been made over the last 10 or 20 years have been showing up in an increase or not in the commercial catch. If you do have any information which would be comparative in nature, I'd be grateful to receive it.

I'd like to move on to the Agriculture department. I regret I didn't have time to ask the Environment department folks about the Great Lakes nutrient initiative, but, Mr. Campbell, in listening to your presentation, it seemed to have to do a lot with the issue of nutrient runoff, I guess I'll call it.

I wonder if you might tell us what involvement, if any, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada has in that Great Lakes nutrient initiative.

[Dr. Ian Campbell]

I don't think I'd be able to speak to very specific cases. I don't have that information with me. We could certainly find it for you, if you want. We do a lot of our work in collaboration, both with the Province of Ontario and with Environment Canada. It could actually become quite difficult, I would imagine, to disentangle projects that do and do not have some connection. Most of the work that we do in that area probably has some connection, however tenuous it might be.

[Stephen Woodworth, Conservative, Kitchener Centre, ON]

All right. It's just not a formal role in the initiative itself, then.

[Dr. Ian Campbell]

Not a formal role, no, but we do a lot of collaborative work.

[Stephen Woodworth, Conservative, Kitchener Centre, ON]

We're going to be hearing from the Grand River Conservation Authority later in this study, but do you have any information that would tell you the degree to which your department collaborates with that agency?

[Dr. Ian Campbell]

Again, we have collaborative work. We do work within the watershed. Do we have formal agreements? We probably do around specific projects, but I would have to look for further information for you.

[Stephen Woodworth, Conservative, Kitchener Centre, ON]

All right.

Does your work regarding nutrients involve solely scientific investigation around best practices, or do you also engage in monitoring of the nutrient flow into the Great Lakes?

[Dr. Ian Campbell]

It's solely best practices work. We don't monitor the flow into the lakes at all, no.

[Stephen Woodworth, Conservative, Kitchener Centre, ON]

Mr. Burden, I was interested in your comments about Aquatic Habitat Toronto. I wonder if you could describe a little bit more for us the specific work this agency has done in cooperation or collaboration with DFO in mitigating environmental impacts or other projects in the Toronto area and the Great Lakes.

[David Burden]

Actually, it's a very unique and interesting approach. There's a development angle to it. Urban sprawl is obviously an issue in the Great Lakes. This initiative looks at creating a bank of improved habitat in the areas around the greater Toronto area that can be used to offset some of the degradation from some of the development and urban sprawl that's going on in that area.

[The Chair, Conservative, Harold Albrecht]

We're going to be really tight with time.

Thank you, Mr. Woodworth.

We're going to move now to Madame Freeman, for a seven-minute round.

[Mylène Freeman, NDP, Argenteuil—Papineau—Mirabel, QC]

Thank you, Chair, and thanks to our witnesses who are here to help us start off this new study well informed. I have some basic questions for all of you.

My first question is for the Department of Agriculture and Agri-Food official.

Ontario has implemented projects to address the destruction of coastal wetlands and riparian habitats. Could you please explain to the committee what is being done in that respect as far as farmers are concerned?

[Dr. Ian Campbell]

I could not tell you anything about farmers specifically. We strictly carry out scientific research. We rarely study specific situations. In fact, I don't believe we've done much work on coastal wetlands.