Fisheries Committee on March 5th, 2009

[Bernard Applebaum]

According to Mr. Bevan, who has been following it, this is the current state of affairs. It's very good, obviously, that it is. But will it hold in the long term? The fact that it seems to be working right now doesn't mean it will hold in the long term. If you're negotiating a new convention, as Mr. Bevan was, one of the objectives, logically, would have been to write in something that would solidify or incorporate in stone, or the new NAFO convention, the thing that is happening or make it happen in the future. That didn't happen in the proposed new convention.

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Lawrence MacAulay]

Mr. Parsons, did you want to add to that?

[Scott Parsons]

Yes. Mr. Bevan testified about what's been happening in terms of perceived violations. You were referring to this. What we have to bear in mind is that you can't assume that what happened in 2007 and 2008 will continue for the next five or ten years. We've been here before.

Following the turbot war, the turbot incident in 1995, when Canada and the EU came eye to eye, there was an improvement. The number of violations did decline significantly for a number of years. Then in the early part of this decade, in 2001-02, there was a return to the previous fishing practices. The then-Canadian negotiator for NAFO, Mr. Pat Chamut, who is familiar to the longer-standing members of the committee, had to go to Copenhagen and denounce what was going on. It took quite a while to try to bring these practices back under control.

I don't know if it's right or not, but Mr. Byrne's thesis about the global economic situation, the cost of fuel and so on, may be affecting what's going on--the number of fishing vessels on the grounds now, declining fishing effort and so forth.

There's nothing to say that will not change in the future. It's happened before; it could happen again.

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Lawrence MacAulay]

Thank you very much, Mr. Weston.

I want to thank Mr. Parsons and Mr. Applebaum for coming before us and giving us your views on the situation. It's very much appreciated. I think we've run out of time.

Mr. Stoffer.

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

I don't know if it's possible. Mr. Parsons indicated that an FAO report is coming out on Monday, if I'm correct--it was last Monday. Is it possible to ask our researcher to get a copy for the committee?

Can I take that as yes?

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Lawrence MacAulay]

The answer is yes, Peter.

Thank you very much.

The meeting is adjourned.