Fisheries Committee on May 5th, 2009

[The Chair, Conservative, Rodney Weston]

Mr. Calkins.

[Blaine Calkins, Conservative, Wetaskiwin, AB]

I think Mr. Kamp and I are going to make the same point. In the interests of time, I'll just give my time to Mr. Kamp, if that's okay with you, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rodney Weston]

Actually, Mr. Kamp is further down the list here.

[Blaine Calkins, Conservative, Wetaskiwin, AB]

I just wanted to make this point. I see my Liberal colleagues trying to spin this as some type of partisan thing. It's simply not. On the wording, we're going to come to some kind of agreement. To look for disagreement where there's agreement is actually the partisan action.

The wording as it stands now would say that “the Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans fully endorses the harp seal hunt”, which is a statement that hasn't changed, “and the committee strongly condemns the ban of Canadian seal products by the European Union despite overwhelming evidence in support of its sustainability”, which is a word that was previously used, “humaneness”, which is a word that was previously in the motion, “and value to thousands of coastal Canadians”, which is a new element that wasn't added in the previous motion.

I think maybe we're trying to look for disagreement where we actually have agreement. If you want to go back to the previous language, as far as I'm concerned I don't have a problem with it. If we simply want, as gentlemen around this table, to decide that we're going to have a working solution whereby we can keep the contents, satisfy the members on the other side of the table, and add in the element concerning the European Union's vote, I think that if we approach this from a more cordial perspective, we'll probably get the result we're looking for.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rodney Weston]

Thank you, Mr. Calkins.

Mr. Allen.

[Mike Allen, Conservative, Tobique—Mactaquac, NB]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I am just going to echo one of the things that Blaine said. I'm okay if we take that as an addition as opposed to a complete change. I'm not averse to taking a very hard position on this either--not at all.

My only concern was my comment that I did make--and I'm not concerned about using the term at all--which is that we are losing this in the court of public opinion in Europe, and it's perception, not reality. It's perception, and that was my only reason for saying that maybe if we toned out that one word we would have a different perception. But I'm not interested in soft-pedalling it if nobody else in the committee is. I have no problem going in full bore. It's not a problem at all. I just put that back on the record.

Mr. Byrne, I certainly hope you've taken your Senate colleagues out by the woodshed and given them the same lecture you gave us just a minute ago.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rodney Weston]

Mr. Byrne.

[Gerry Byrne, Liberal, Humber—St. Barbe—Baie Verte, NL]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I fail to see what exactly is gained by deleting as opposed to adding, which is really the objective here. I'll make a concession.

Mike, you've said take the word “beater” out of this. Let's work to compromise. Everything else stays except.... I'll keep “approves that the harvesting of harp seals is fully acceptable”. I will take out “of the age cohort known as beaters and older”. I'll take that out. Everything else stays and we add what Mr. Kamp had. Let's go.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rodney Weston]

Mr. Kamp.

[Randy Kamp, Conservative, Pitt Meadows—Maple Ridge—Mission, BC]

Let me just reiterate, then, that my intention was not to soften, and in fact I don't see how it does in that wording. You'll forgive me for my linguistic background. I was going to add it, but then it occurred to me that we're talking about the same thing twice, humane methods, and sustainability, and so on. So I thought it would be better to only refer to it once.

My suggestion, Mr. Chair, would be that we defeat this amendment and then we go back to an amendment.... It's not up to the mover to change this motion obviously, but it's up to the committee, and we would have Mr. Byrne make that amendment adding.... I don't know if you'd want to add the whole of what I had there or maybe just “and strongly condemns the ban of Canadian seal products by the European Union”, because we've already referred to those other matters. I think that would be acceptable to us if you want to call the question and get this off the table so that we can get to some more productive work.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rodney Weston]

Mr. Weston, you were next on the list. Basically, do you have anything to add further on that? I'm about to call the question on this amendment.

[John Weston, Conservative, West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast—Sea to Sky Country, BC]

No.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rodney Weston]

All right.

The question is on the amendment, as moved by Mr. Kamp, to add “and strongly condemns the ban of Canadian seal products by the European Union despite overwhelming evidence in support of the sustainability, humaneness, and value to thousands of coastal Canadian families”, adding that in after the words “the harp seal hunt”, and period at the end.

(Amendment negatived)

On the original motion, Mr. Byrne.

[Gerry Byrne, Liberal, Humber—St. Barbe—Baie Verte, NL]

Mr. Chair, I'd like to propose an amendment to the original motion, that the words subsequent to--

[The Chair, Conservative, Rodney Weston]

Mr. Byrnes, I'm sorry to interrupt you. The clerk has informed me that you can't amend your own motion. You need to have someone else make the amendment for you.

Mr. Andrews, would you like to do that?

[Scott Andrews, Liberal, Avalon, NL]

Yes. What we'd like to do here is, starting on the fourth line with the words “of”, remove “of the age cohort known as beaters and older”. Delete that, and then put the wording of Mr. Kamp in at the end of the last semicolon.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rodney Weston]

The entire wording? Fair enough.

So the amendment by Mr. Andrews is, with the original motion, to delete the words “of the age cohort known as beaters and older”. It's to delete those words.

I'm going to call the question on this amendment.

(Amendment agreed to [See Minutes of Proceedings])

Mr. Calkins.

[Blaine Calkins, Conservative, Wetaskiwin, AB]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Given the considerations of cohesiveness that we've had here, I would like to propose another amendment to add something after the words “continue for generations to come”. I would insert in there “and the committee strongly condemns the ban of Canadian seal products by the European Union”.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rodney Weston]

The amendment by Mr. Calkins is to take the amended motion and to amend it once again to add in at the end.... I'm sorry, do you want to repeat that wording, just so I can hear the words?

[Blaine Calkins, Conservative, Wetaskiwin, AB]

After the words “continue for generations to come”, add in before the semicolon, “and the committee strongly condemns the ban of Canadian seal products by the European Union”.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rodney Weston]

The amendment is to add, at the end of the amended motion, “and the committee strongly condemns the ban of Canadian seal products by the European Union”.

(Amendment agreed to [See Minutes of Proceedings])

[The Chair, Conservative, Rodney Weston]

Just let me catch up to myself here.

On the motion itself, we're going to call a vote. This will be a recorded vote, so I will ask the clerk at this time to conduct the recorded vote.

(Motion as amended agreed to: yeas 10; nays 0)

The committee unanimously approves the motion. I will direct the clerk, as outlined in the motion, to make the results of the recorded vote immediately available to the public through the media. The advisories will be prepared by her and distributed throughout Canada.

There is one more point of business before we adjourn. Mr. Blais has requested that on Thursday, because of the urgency of this issue, we ask the minister and/or officials from DFO to come in and to brief this committee on the events surrounding the ban of the seal products by the European Union.

Basically, I'm letting the committee know. Is it the wish of the committee to proceed? Thank you.

[Blaine Calkins, Conservative, Wetaskiwin, AB]

How does that affect our current work plan, Mr. Chair? Does it delay the lobster report?

[The Chair, Conservative, Rodney Weston]

It will delay the lobster report.

Thank you. The meeting is adjourned.