Fisheries Committee on Nov. 28th, 2006

[David Bevan]

We have, in the past, pursued that with the United States in our bilateral sessions. Recently we haven't focused on that. We've had other bilateral issues with them around the Machias Seal Island, cooperative work in NAFO, and other agenda items. The other issue there was that the markets were very good for the pelts, so we had no trouble selling the pelts coming from the seal hunt. We've had hundreds of thousands of animals used and sold in other markets at a very good price. That hasn't been a major focus for us in the most recent meetings with the United States.

[Peter Stoffer, NDP, Sackville—Eastern Shore, NS]

My final question for you--

[Loyola Hearn, Conservative, St. John's South—Mount Pearl, NL]

Good.

[Peter Stoffer, NDP, Sackville—Eastern Shore, NS]

I heard that.

You know we battled about custodial management and now we talk about the bottom trawling on the high seas. Would it be possible to either get monthly reports or get them whenever these reports come up? I know you said you are in negotiations with other countries, but if there are certain goalposts and deadlines that need to be met in terms of the protection of the Nose and Tail and the Flemish Cap, if the committee can receive those as an update as we go along, that would probably prevent a lot of questions and misunderstandings about the procedures and what's happening. A lot of folks in Newfoundland and Labrador are still concerned about what's going on in the international high seas, and those updates would be very helpful for our committee.

I thank you for coming today.

[Loyola Hearn, Conservative, St. John's South—Mount Pearl, NL]

Thank you, Mr. Stoffer. That is a very good suggestion. We can certainly let the committee know, or have a report that I can make available to the committee members, about what is happening, where we see a decrease, or an increase, or whatever.

The thing is that part of the problem in Newfoundland is that we have some people who are completely and utterly irresponsible, one of them being a former minister and now a senator who continuously talks about the hundred Russian trawlers that are out off our coast and that type of thing. We see very little activity. If we could control the fishery inside our 200-mile limit today as well as we can control it on the Nose and Tail and Flemish Cap, we'd be in very good shape.

Things have come a long way. We see the cooperation we're getting, even from countries like Spain, now before the requirements kick in, but as of January 1, any countries that step out of line in relation to illegal, unregulated fishing, overfishing, or misreporting are going to pay an extremely heavy price. Added to that of course is the resolution at the UN. I believe we have gone a long way toward solving that problem.

However, we have to make sure that we are the ones who will continue to manage that by the presence of our coast guard. That's why, when we talk about losing jobs and so on, our aim is to enhance the coast guard to the point where we'll be adding rather than taking away. Our presence in the north will depend heavily on the coast guard, so I see an enhanced role for the coast guard rather than a diminished one.

If we talk about custodial management, a term that nobody has ever defined, we have a scenario now where we have the management regime outside basically the same as we have inside, and we can manage that with our forces if we keep them in place--our coast guard and our aerial surveillance. Basically, we have the tools now and we've made the progress to do the job, and it would be only fair to let people know how far we've come.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gerald Keddy]

Thank you.

[Larry Murray]

Mr. Chair, we'd be happy to work with the clerk to come up with some kind of reporting format and sequence or timing that would work for the committee. I think it's quite important.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gerald Keddy]

I think our committee members understand how difficult it is to negotiate in a public forum as well.

To the minister and to our witnesses, thank you for appearing today.

If we may, we have one final question from Mr. Shipley, who has sat very patiently through these two hours and would like to get his question in before we rise.

[Bev Shipley, Conservative, Lambton—Kent—Middlesex, ON]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, and you, Mr. Minister, for coming out. We appreciate the opportunity.

I want to go to one of the initiatives that have been announced, the Atlantic Salmon endowment fund. Then there was an initiative, I believe the Fraser Basin initiative, that had come out. I'm just not sure of the amount of money; it's somewhere around $10 million.

Is there a linkage? Can you give a quick synopsis of the connection between what the Atlantic Salmon endowment fund is and what this one might be? Is it in terms of having one on the east coast and one on the west coast?

[Loyola Hearn, Conservative, St. John's South—Mount Pearl, NL]

Not really. We had already an endowment fund on the west coast. There is a Pacific coast endowment fund. We have been using that argument, I guess, to get one for the Atlantic coast, which we now have.

Concerning the initiative in the Fraser Valley, even though I said there was no connection, there is in the sense that it all goes to protecting our salmon, the wild salmon in particular. You have a lot of groups--and we've met them--on the west coast who pride themselves on protecting the salmon. I think for a while they were going, like all of us, in different directions, and now they're all coming together.

One of the players we've worked with fairly closely is a fellow by the name of Rick Hansen, the Man in Motion, who has done a great job in protecting and promoting the sturgeon and enhancing the sturgeon stocks on the Fraser. I had the advantage a couple of weeks ago of spending some time on the Fraser with him and a number of others, including first nations people and our own official members of these various groups.

They have come together to bring everyone to the table to try to develop a proper procedure for managing the salmon in the area, protecting and enhancing, and getting everybody around, and cutting out these wars we saw every year on the Fraser River. I think we've come a long way. We put $10 million into that initiative, and they will be raising a tremendous amount of money themselves; they have major commitments. I'm really pleased with what I see happening on the west coast.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gerald Keddy]

Thank you, Mr. Shipley, and thank you, Minister and witnesses.

Before our members rise, we have a request from the World Wildlife Fund to appear at our December 7 meeting. We could slot them in, so if we have agreement from our committee members, that would finish our study on seals.

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gerald Keddy]

Thanks again to the minister and our witnesses from the department for appearing today.

The meeting is adjourned.