Evidence of meeting #11 for Fisheries and Oceans in the 39th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was thursday.
A recording is available from Parliament.
11:25 a.m.
Liberal
Bill Matthews Liberal Random—Burin—St. George's, NL
Wonderful. And if you're unable to do that, I'm sure that most of the committee would understand.
11:25 a.m.
An hon. member
You can read between the lines.
11:25 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Gerald Keddy
Yes, I can.
The other thing is that we have had some discussions on boat stability. We might be able to get someone from the department in on an item like that. That would fit in for Thursday, because they could come on shorter notice.
The other issue is that I've asked the clerk to put together a schedule for potential travel to the east coast. Again, I urge all members to speak directly to their whips. I will tell you that I spoke to the government whip, and he wasn't fussy about the idea of travel while the House is sitting.
11:25 a.m.
Conservative
11:25 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Gerald Keddy
I think it's important that we finish this east coast travel in particular, on the seal hunt. It's not working for most members to travel during the break week, so I say we put a reasonable package together and ask for travel during a sitting week. As long as we have enough members from both sides that we're in balance, I'm willing to take that to the whip and the House leaders and wherever I have to take it to try to get concurrence and the ability to travel. If we can't, we can't.
Right now, the week we're looking at would be the week of November 6 to 10. I know everyone wants to be home for Remembrance Day, but that would put us back in our ridings on the evening of November 10.
Does anybody have difficulty with that? We'll try to put a balanced group together so that there's no advantage to anyone in the House. We'll appeal to the common sense and goodwill of our House officers.
11:30 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Gerald Keddy
What we've looked at is Newfoundland, the Magdalen Islands, and one stop probably in southwest Nova Scotia for grey seals. At the same time, we were going to try to do some interviews on boat length and boat stability.
11:30 a.m.
Liberal
Lawrence MacAulay Liberal Cardigan, PE
On that issue and on the seal hunt itself, it affects Prince Edward Island. I know it's a small area, but it is a problem. I think it's only fair that we go there for at least half a day and have a hearing there, because it does affect a lot of fishermen. You talked about boat length; that's always a concern there too, but what's going on with the seal hunt and how it's handled certainly has a major effect on our fishermen now, to the extent that a lot of them are not fishing.
11:30 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Gerald Keddy
I respect that. The issue is to try to get a.... We'll look at it again.
There are two issues with seals. One issue is the harp and the hooded seal and the other issue is the grey seal. The grey seal is predominantly a problem in southwest Nova Scotia. They're coming in off Sable and that entire area. They're found out past 100 miles now in the open ocean.
The other issue with the grey seal is that they've adapted. At one time you could set gear at 80 feet and you just didn't get any predation by the grey seals. Now they're diving deeper. They're diving down to 100 feet. They've figured out where the food is and how to get it.
Anyway, Mr. MacAulay, we'll look at that. I don't know if we can promise, simply because of the shortness of the trip, that we'll have time. We are looking at trying to go to as many places as we can.
11:30 a.m.
Liberal
Lawrence MacAulay Liberal Cardigan, PE
I certainly hope you can, but if you can't, I hope you will at least take a group in from there.
11:30 a.m.
Conservative
John Cummins Conservative Delta—Richmond East, BC
The first thing is that you have to get the whip's okay to get out of here, so--
11:30 a.m.
Conservative
John Cummins Conservative Delta—Richmond East, BC
When you get there, then we'll worry about the agenda.
11:30 a.m.
Liberal
Lawrence MacAulay Liberal Cardigan, PE
John, you don't sound optimistic. I think we should discuss more here, John.
11:30 a.m.
Conservative
11:30 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Gerald Keddy
No, and I don't want to put the clerk or our researchers, François or Richard, to a lot of work trying to organize events that end up being vetoed. We're trying to put this together; we're trying to get as much out of it as we can. If not, we will have to try to bring people to Ottawa and work from here.
Just a second, Mr. Matthews; Mr. Lunney had his hand up, and I didn't recognize him earlier.
I'm sorry, Mr. Lunney.
11:30 a.m.
Conservative
James Lunney Conservative Nanaimo—Alberni, BC
There's no problem. I just wanted to ask about the agenda. You're talking about getting back for November 11. Where would November 10 put us finishing up, then?
November 11 is actually a Saturday, isn't it? For those of us who have to get to the other end of the country, there's travel time involved.
11:30 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Gerald Keddy
Where are we on the 10th?
If worse comes to worst and you have to travel, you can leave early.
11:30 a.m.
Conservative
11:30 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Gerald Keddy
I don't know.
Right now we're scheduled, Richard says, to be in Nova Scotia on November 10, so that would be a direct flight out of Halifax. It might actually be quicker to catch a Halifax flight than trying to get one out of, say, the Magdalens or Newfoundland.
Mr. Matthews is next.
11:30 a.m.
Liberal
Bill Matthews Liberal Random—Burin—St. George's, NL
I have a comment on the difficulty with the whips. They are probably all difficult, but it sounds as though your whip is the most difficult one, because he's the government whip. What if we gave an assurance that more opposition members would be travelling than government members?
11:35 a.m.
Conservative
