Fisheries Committee on Nov. 6th, 2006

[Fabian Manning, Conservative, Avalon, NL]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Regardless of who's in power in Ottawa, paramount is the safety of people on the water and making sure they come home. Regardless of who's sitting at the controls in Ottawa, it's the controls of the boat that are more important in this process. I don't know a whole lot about the process that's taking place in consultations, but there's definitely a void here, if people like you haven't been involved in the process. That's my own personal opinion.

My final question is, in respect to the rules—and I don't pretend to know things I don't—are there national rules right across the country? There seems to be some concern about boat building in Newfoundland versus boat building in some other provinces—things they're allowed to do or not allowed to do, whatever the case may be, maybe from Hubert's point of view.

I know there are national standards, but are there any differences that you're aware of in the provinces in relation to boat building?

[The Chair, Conservative, Gerald Keddy]

Atlantic Canada is separate. Our rules are different from those of the west coast. On the west coast, your boat length is not as important.

[Fabian Manning, Conservative, Avalon, NL]

So Atlantic Canada has its own set of rules, does it?

[A voice]

It's because the oceans are different—supposedly.

[Fabian Manning, Conservative, Avalon, NL]

Some fishermen have brought that up to me. What they say is in place and what is actually in place are always two different things anyway.

[Hubert Randell]

The reason I say that is that Transport Canada does inspections, obviously, in all of Atlantic Canada. Yet we see boats from other provinces that are getting inspected by different inspectors, who I suppose interpret the rules and regulations differently; I don't know. But it's not all the same, no.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gerald Keddy]

Thank you, Mr. Randell.

Thank you, Mr. Manning.

I'm just going to sum up quickly here, gentlemen, and not take too much time.

There is obviously some disconnect here, and it was certainly something that we recognized as a committee it was important to discuss—boat stability throughout Atlantic Canada in particular—to make sure everyone was aware of what was going on.

I will tell you, I represent South Shore—St. Margaret's, which is a big fishery riding in southwest Nova Scotia. We probably have 1,000 boats fishing on the water everywhere from the high Arctic to the Grand Banks to the inshore. They were all aware of it. They had been going to the meetings. They thought it was moving too fast, they wanted to slow it down, they wanted to be able to have hull types tested, and they wanted more input when it was brought in.

For the record, I will tell you that there was a meeting—we just looked it up—in Gander on April 19, 2005. I understand that would have been a Transport Canada meeting. So there was a meeting in Newfoundland.

But that aside, part of the difficulty is that the fishery has changed. I understand Mr. Cull's comments, because they're the same comments I hear in southwest Nova Scotia, that you don't want boat length to change effort: the number of fishing days, the amount of catch. That's a great fear amongst a lot of fishermen.

At the same time, we have some licence holders on 34' 11'' boats fishing out of southwest Nova Scotia on Georges Bank. They're out 150 miles offshore, and it's definitely not safe.

[Normand Cull]

And you have the same thing here.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gerald Keddy]

Absolutely.

[Normand Cull]

We have the exact same issues here. You have boats that are fishing 50 miles offshore, 35-foot boats. That issue in itself, Mr. Chairman, has to be changed. All I'm saying to you is, I don't think the 65-foot barrier needs to be lifted. But I think that within that 65-foot barrier, the fellow in the 35-footer, if he wants to, should be given some flexibility to move.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gerald Keddy]

I will tell you that we have an all-party committee. We have been very successful in making recommendations in the past without dissenting reports. We usually are like-minded when we put our report together, and one of the challenges we will face here is that whatever recommendation--I don't want to prejudge the recommendations of the committee--we put forth errs on the side of conservation and safety. After saying that, the other challenge we are faced with is if you have a certain amount of quota, and most of the fishery is either an IQ or ITQ system today with so much tack divided up among the fishermen, so if you have 40,000 pounds of groundfish and 275 trapped lobster licence, what difference is it what length your boat is when you fish that quota? That becomes the difficulty.

The old rules were put in place for reasons, for conservation reasons mainly. They don't necessarily apply, and that's what we've been trying to deal with and to educate the public, and to educate ourselves, quite frankly.

With that comment, I want to say thank you very much for appearing today. It has been very informative and helpful.

Just before I adjourn the meeting, those who have any further comments that they'd like to give to the committee in writing are welcome to send them forward. If there are any fishermen groups or any other groups that have an interest, please send them forward. We're happy to hear from you.

The meeting is adjourned.