My name is Gilles Vigneau. I am a fisherman, and a member of the Regroupement des pêcheurs professionnels des Îles-de-la-Madeleine.
Over the past three years, I have been following Transport Canada's work on regulating fishing vessels.
I will try to answer the question put by the member, as to how the government has come to acquire a stability test for fishing vessels. There was a very unfortunate accident off the west coast of Newfoundland in the fall of 2004. Two people lost their lives. I believe that the incident caused an internal shock at Transport Canada, because it was the first time in history that the people involved — the family of the two people who died — sued Transport Canada on the grounds of construction and stability of their vessels.
Following the proceedings, the department seems to have established a fairly stringent policy on fishing vessels stability. Those most affected by the new measure — and I am among them — are fishers of groundfish, scallops and others who need to display a load on the vessel bridge. Since I fish more than one species — scallops and groundfish — those measures affected my fishing business directly. I had to make minor changes to a vessel in January of this year, and the Department of Transport imposed on me two mandatory stability tests, with conditions that are not really clear, however. Between September and January, the measures became more specific, and finally became mandatory.
In this region, there were public consultations with the Department of Transport, and all the regulations being discussed here today were debated then. At present, a number of committees are continuing to work on the new regulations surrounding stability tests, as well as new regulations governing fishing vessels. Unfortunately, I cannot tell you today what we are discussing. It does seem clear, however, that measures like the stability tests cannot be imposed on different fishing fleets that were already... Some stability tests had already been carried out. There is a test we call the sistership test in the industry. Basically, you take one vessel and conduct a stability test, which is then valid for all sisterships at the same time. That made it possible to meet some of the department's requirements.
Now, the department proceeds case by case. It selects one vessel and has it submit to a stability test, something which unfortunately is very onerous. What we in the region find deplorable is that this is being done very quickly. In my view, there was not much consultation and the industry's response time did not really give us time to adjust. In my case, when I made some modifications to my vessel in January, a Transport Canada representative told me that if I did not have the test carried out before April, regrettably I would not be able to carry on fishing as I usually do. There was no way I could defend myself. The department is going on a case-by-case basis and its decisions are much more difficult to challenge. I find that unfortunate.
In addition, the regulations mention vessels of over 15 tons. Transport Canada regulations seem to apply differently from one Maritime region to another. In Quebec, people are proactive and apply new regulations much more quickly. In our case, everything was therefore applied very quickly, and the obligations imposed upon us are much greater than those imposed on our fellow fishers in other provinces, like Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland and Nova Scotia. Even though the same federal statute applies, it seems to be interpreted differently in different provinces.
If you impose stability tests, or change other regulations governing fishing vessels, either in minor or major ways, it is important that regulations apply uniformly from coast to coast, and not only within the regions of Quebec.
Does that answer your question?