Fisheries Committee on April 1st, 2009

[Hubert Saulnier]

Oh, yes. I'm getting there.

Cut the licence fees in half. I said that was great, and that every licence holder would probably save some $900 to put in their pockets, and that's fine, but we have the same old problem. There is no representation. There is still nothing out there to try to promote the product.

I asked Mr. Comeau if Ottawa would be willing to cut our licence fees in half because we pay a tremendous amount compared to other areas. Why couldn't we still pay $1,890 to Ottawa, general revenues, and they in turn could submit 50% on average to an office in southwest Nova Scotia, where we'd have paid staff, a paid secretary, paid field workers, student hires in the summertime to do surveys of the industry's goal?

Roger suggested we had to make lots of decisions at the eleventh hour. We should have a way to get to the fishermen and see how they liked the fact that we closed the fishing on Sunday this season. We have no way of doing that. DFO can't do that either.

So that was the intent, if that answers the question.

[Lawrence MacAulay, Liberal, Cardigan, PE]

You also mentioned something about marketing and that it might even remove some of the processors in the area. Can you elaborate on that point?

[Hubert Saulnier]

It's not to remove the processors whatsoever. We want to work with the processors and the buyers. They're part of the industry, and they're part of what we need. What we know is that we have to try to promote the product. The product is good, and there's really nobody out there who is promoting the product.

[Lawrence MacAulay, Liberal, Cardigan, PE]

In fact, what you're putting in place would be more of a promotional agency that would promote your product and also represent the fishermen, possibly, even at events like this. Is that what you mean?

[Hubert Saulnier]

Yes.

[Lawrence MacAulay, Liberal, Cardigan, PE]

You wouldn't have to tie up your boat in order to come and tell politicians what they should do.

[Hubert Saulnier]

We could tell you, but....

[Lawrence MacAulay, Liberal, Cardigan, PE]

We know. You did.

[Hubert Saulnier]

Promotion, I think, is important. We did a lot of promotion on the back of half-ton trucks last fall, and that was a huge promotion.

[Lawrence MacAulay, Liberal, Cardigan, PE]

What effect did that have?

[Hubert Saulnier]

That had a huge effect in the Halifax area. A lot of people were buying a product that they were scared to buy before, because it's always been at an inflated price, and people assumed that it was a luxury product. And now it was cheap, so they bought it and they loved it and they went back.

John mentioned something about the Olympics. Yes, we need somebody who wants to promote the product. That would benefit the fishermen and the buyers, as well.

[Lawrence MacAulay, Liberal, Cardigan, PE]

All governments, over the last number of years, seem to be downloading onto the fishery by having all different types of fees. Would you like to elaborate a bit on that? I think it's becoming more costly all the time with all the measures DFO has imposed upon fishermen that take dollars out of their pockets.

[Hubert Saulnier]

That's been escalating since 1996, when we started with community-based management in terms of groundfish. And the downloading costs have escalated. I'm involved in the groundfishery as well, with fish gill nets in the summertime. You have to bring somebody with you at sea as an observer. You have to pay him $325 a day. You're limited in what you can catch.

There's dockside monitoring. It gets more intensive all the time. It used to be after a certain percentage. Now it's almost 100%. There are the licensing fees and everything else. Last year I could call a monitoring company three hours before I left the wharf. Now I have to call six hours before I leave the wharf to warn them that I am going fishing. So there's been a tremendous amount of downloading cost passed on to the industry.

[Lawrence MacAulay, Liberal, Cardigan, PE]

We've heard a fair bit of criticism about dockside monitoring here.

This is not your area, but of course you sell lobster, and you try to make a dollar, as much money as you can, out of the lobster. Holding facilities have been an issue. It was brought to my attention long before we made this trip. What seems to happen is that lobster, of course, is a delicacy, but it all comes at once, and the problem is that you don't get the full return on your investment.

Do you think there are enough holding facilities? Do we have the proper holding facilities, and if there are not enough, should there be more? And who should own them? How should they be operated? Should it be just the processors, or should it be a cooperative, or should the fishermen own the lobster? Do you know what I mean?

[Hubert Saulnier]

Yes.

[Lawrence MacAulay, Liberal, Cardigan, PE]

I've had fishermen in Prince Edward Island approach me a number of times and say that the thing they need is a holding facility--nobody is against processors or anything--so they can control a proper flow of lobster.

[Hubert Saulnier]

Yes, it would be according to market demand.

[Lawrence MacAulay, Liberal, Cardigan, PE]

Who should own that?

[Hubert Saulnier]

Like Roger, I'm a free enterprise guy. If the fishermen want to get a holding facility, they should be entitled to get one. The problem is that some fishermen at sea and some holding facilities are very good at taking care of their product, and some aren't.

I think Mr. Morrow mentioned a two-price system. Roger and I sell our catch daily. Every day when we come in we sell a premium product. Others just hold the lobsters for a few months in crates. They're in bad condition, and the buyers pay top dollar for them.

[Lawrence MacAulay, Liberal, Cardigan, PE]

In the end, that hurts your price too.

[Hubert Saulnier]

It does, yes. It shouldn't be that way.

[Lawrence MacAulay, Liberal, Cardigan, PE]

I certainly apologize. I went over my time. I went beyond it.

Thank you very much.

[Greg Kerr, Conservative, West Nova, NS]

You look sorry.

[Lawrence MacAulay, Liberal, Cardigan, PE]

Thank you very much for coming.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rodney Weston]

Thank you.

Monsieur Blais.