You have thirty seconds.
Evidence of meeting #21 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 boat.
Evidence of meeting #21 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 boat.
12:25 p.m.
Liberal
Scott Simms Liberal Bonavista—Gander—Grand Falls—Windsor, NL
Mr. Randell, do you export outside of the country?
12:25 p.m.
Liberal
Scott Simms Liberal Bonavista—Gander—Grand Falls—Windsor, NL
To do that, obviously, a lot of your modifications would have to change. It's really not worth it for you to export, because your costs would substantially increase to reorganize.
12:25 p.m.
Liberal
Scott Simms Liberal Bonavista—Gander—Grand Falls—Windsor, NL
So exporting is really not an option for you?
12:25 p.m.
Bloc
Raynald Blais Bloc Gaspésie—Îles-de-la-Madeleine, QC
First off, Mr. Cull, I'd like to get a clearer picture of the situation you face, in terms of the safety aspect of boats.
To your knowledge, are fishing boats less safe than in the past? Are they less stable today, in light of the changes that have been made in recent years?
12:25 p.m.
Fisherman, As an Individual
Some of the boats probably are not safe to go out in, and that's probably due to the design of the boat. As Hubert pointed out, in order to get what the fishermen need sometimes, they have to build the boat in an unsafe way in order to satisfy that need. I think this is what's happening in some of the cases we've seen around the island of boats being capsized. It happened here a few days ago; one overturned. I think that's because the boats have gone beyond the stage where they should be.
You've got some 65-foot boats out there now that are very capable of fishing in the conditions they fish in, but if you go beyond.... At this time of the year, my boat right now is out fishing. This is our last trip, and I doubt if she's capable of fishing beyond this time of the year. In fact, I know she's not. You've probably got more boats here that are quite capable of going out and fishing beyond. It depends. I'm at no virtue to say whether those boats should be on the water or not. I don't know.
It's a question you should leave to the individual fishermen. If they feel safe to be out there in a boat of 65 feet, then that's fine. If they think they need to go into a bigger boat because of safety aspects, then leave that to the fishermen too--but if they do that, then don't come back and say, well, I need another million pounds of fish. That's going to come from me, you know what I mean? It comes from the overall IQ. In order for the person going into the 100-footer to get an extra million pounds of fish, it's going to come from me as an individual who wants to stay in the boat that I'm already in.
12:25 p.m.
Bloc
Raynald Blais Bloc Gaspésie—Îles-de-la-Madeleine, QC
I've observed that in Quebec, to deal with the increase in fuel prices, many shrimpers have installed at the front of their boats a device -- I don't know what it's called in French -- to reduce resistance.
Do you also use that device here?
Mr. Randell, if you have anything you'd like to say, please feel free to jump in.
12:30 p.m.
Boat Builder, As an Individual
I'm not sure if you're referring to the bulbous bow. I think that's what you're referring to. Yes, you're right. It is used by some of the fishermen here in Newfoundland as well, to give better fuel efficiency. Again, it's supposed to increase the stability of the boat as well. It prevents the bobbing up and down in the front of the boat. It seems to be one of the newer things in the boat-building industry that's happening right now.
12:30 p.m.
Bloc
Raynald Blais Bloc Gaspésie—Îles-de-la-Madeleine, QC
When you modify a boat, what steps do you take to ensure that the vessel is more or less safe? Who determines the safety of the vessel? Are some kind of tests done?
I suppose there is some scientific basis used to determine that change x, y or z is safer. What procedure is currently followed?
12:30 p.m.
Boat Builder, As an Individual
It's designed by a naval architect. They will forward the blueprints or the plans to the boat builder. During the process, there are inspections by Transport Canada, because the blueprints do go to Transport Canada. Even before the start of the project, those blueprints are supposedly being approved by Transport Canada first. So we have Transport Canada's blessing. As the project gets completed, Transport Canada does another inspection, and they also do what we call a roll test or an incline test. Then of course they do a stability look as well. They determine, based on the tests they do, if the boat is fit to fish or is stable to fish.
So from start to finish it's always inspected by Transport Canada. And they have the last say on whether that boat is suitable for fishing or not.
November 6th, 2006 / 12:30 p.m.
Conservative
Randy Kamp Conservative Pitt Meadows—Maple Ridge—Mission, BC
Are you saying that you think vessel length rules are no longer relevant under the current conditions, and so on?
12:30 p.m.
Fisherman, As an Individual
No. The length of the vessel right now--again, this is a personal point of view--if we're not going to ask for any more quota—
If I have an individual quota to catch--right now we're on a 650,000-pound cap with shrimp and I have x number of pounds of crab--and I want to go to an 80-footer or a 100-footer to catch that quota, then they should leave it up to me as a business person to decide. And if I can meet the economics of that, then that's my decision. But because I'm going to a 100-footer, don't come out and say that I need another million pounds of fish in order to operate that 100-footer.
What I'm saying--and I have it there in my notes--is that if the Government of Canada puts the option in place of saying you can go from a 65-footer to your 100-footer if you want to, don't come back and ask me for any more fish to pay for that. If they give me an extra million pounds because I went into a 100-footer, then I think they should give the fellow who's in the 65-footer the same amount, if it's going to be shared equally.
Do you understand where I'm coming from?
12:30 p.m.
Conservative
Randy Kamp Conservative Pitt Meadows—Maple Ridge—Mission, BC
If the individual fisherman or the fleet is overcapitalized, which I think are the words that Mr. Bevan used, I think we would all agree with you that this can't lead to a request for an increase in quota. Do you think some fishermen might be tempted to bypass some rules to help pay off this additional expense without getting quota, in other words, fishing illegally in some way?
12:35 p.m.
Fisherman, As an Individual
No, I can't see that happening, because then you would be getting into another part of it, taking the chance of losing what you've got or whatever. I can't see that happening.
12:35 p.m.
Conservative
Randy Kamp Conservative Pitt Meadows—Maple Ridge—Mission, BC
In your view, that's not likely to happen. Fishermen always keep to the rules, and if they have to pay for this boat.... It's really too big for what they need. They won't try to push the boundaries of the rules, at least, to get more fish than they have quota to catch?
12:35 p.m.
Fisherman, As an Individual
Well, it's not only me who's worried about this, and I'm sure they will. Once you get into a bigger boat, then your appetite will get larger, there's no doubt about that. That's been proven over the years. But I can't see anybody...because you're not talking about going out and fishing the salmon illegally, or one fish or something like that; you're talking about putting your whole livelihood into jeopardy when you're talking about going out and doing things wrong in the industry we're in. With the technology that you have now--which will probably get even more technical--you have the black boxes and everything like this on your boat, so you can hardly go out and do things illegally, because there are too many eyes on you right now.
12:35 p.m.
Conservative
Randy Kamp Conservative Pitt Meadows—Maple Ridge—Mission, BC
Yes, and we, of course, hope that doesn't happen.
Good. Thank you.