Evidence of meeting #51 for Environment and Sustainable Development in the 41st Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was animals.

A recording is available from Parliament.

On the agenda

MPs speaking

Also speaking

Robert Cahill  Senior Vice President, North American Fur Auctions
Gregory Thompson  Advisor, Fur Institute of Canada
Jim Gibb  Chair, Communications Committee, Fur Institute of Canada
Dion Dakins  Chair, Sealing Committee, Fur Institute of Canada
Nancy Daigneault  Vice President, Americas, International Fur Federation
Michael Howie  Director of Digital Content and Special Projects, The Association for the Protection of Fur-Bearing Animals

10:35 a.m.

Conservative

Robert Sopuck Conservative Dauphin—Swan River—Marquette, MB

Thank you very much.

10:35 a.m.

NDP

The Vice-Chair NDP Megan Leslie

Thanks.

Mr. McKay, we have about two minutes before we adjourn.

10:35 a.m.

Liberal

John McKay Liberal Scarborough—Guildwood, ON

Thank you very much.

Poor old Mr. Howie has been like a skunk at a garden party; I dare say that some of my colleagues might want to see him in one of Mr. Cahill's auctions. But I want to get his response to the tags and the signs.

I thought Mr. Gibb gave a thoughtful response to your concerns. I thought I'd give you an opportunity to reply.

10:35 a.m.

Director of Digital Content and Special Projects, The Association for the Protection of Fur-Bearing Animals

Michael Howie

Thank you very much, Mr. McKay.

He did provide good answers. Many of us in this debate actually end up meeting at community meetings and having frank conversations that are surprisingly civil. We often invite trappers to come to our conferences.

In terms of the signage, I will point out that we're not saying, “there is a trap here, here, and here”; we're saying “there are traps on this trail”. Yes, many people let their dogs off leash because they don't know there are traps. It's a very simple, logical deduction: if I know there are traps, you can bet your sweet patootie I'm not letting my dog off leash.

But there are no such signs, and dogs are injured. And these are not necessarily in the deep woods; this is outside of Coburg. Less than six feet off the national Heritage Trail, a woman's dog walked into a leg-hold, and another one into a Conibear trap.

I don't know how you can reason your way out of the idea of signs or tags. Frankly, people lie. I think we've seen that during this meeting. It's important to note that not all trappers are going to be honest. That's why we need regulations. That's why we have speed limits on the highway, with the OPP here in Ontario chasing us down if we're on our cellphones. Everybody knows the rules, but sometimes you just want to go a little faster, and that creates problems.

10:40 a.m.

NDP

The Vice-Chair NDP Megan Leslie

Thank you, Mr. Howie.

That finishes our time.

10:40 a.m.

Conservative

Colin Carrie Conservative Oshawa, ON

Can I just finish with a point of order?

Mr. Howie suggested that some people lied and that we may have seen that in this meeting. I don't think that's an appropriate comment.

10:40 a.m.

NDP

The Vice-Chair NDP Megan Leslie

That's fair enough.

Thank you all for your time today; we very much appreciate it. Thanks for contributing to this study.

I'm going to suspend temporarily so that we can clear the room. We're going to move in camera for discussion of our motion.

Thank you.

[Proceedings continue in camera]