About 800 people are working in the plants.
Evidence of meeting #16 for Fisheries and Oceans in the 40th Parliament, 3rd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was fishers.
Evidence of meeting #16 for Fisheries and Oceans in the 40th Parliament, 3rd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was fishers.
10:45 a.m.
General Director, Conférence régionale des élu(e)s Gaspésie-Îles-de-la-Madeleine
About 800 people are working in the plants.
10:45 a.m.
Conservative
Mike Allen Conservative Tobique—Mactaquac, NB
Okay.
In New Brunswick, I think there are about 2,000 people working in the plants. It seems the number of workers has dropped by 3% since 2000.
What is the wage rate they're paid? I know that in New Brunswick the wage rate in the facilities is kind of like...it's a lot of hours and low wages. Can you comment about what the wage rate is here and how many hours...? Is it that traditionally all the work is front-end loaded to the first part of the season, the first four weeks? I understand that a lot of the catch comes in the first four weeks of the season. Is that true?
10:45 a.m.
Conservative
Mike Allen Conservative Tobique—Mactaquac, NB
Okay. Do you have any comments to make on the wage rates in the plants?
10:45 a.m.
President, Association des crabiers gaspésiens inc.
The number of workers has not really gone down. Because of new entrants, the number of crab fishery stakeholders has not gone down—in fact, it has gone up. The same quantity of crab is being landed a lot faster by more people; that is all. There is the same number of people, but they do not work as long.
10:45 a.m.
General Director, Conférence régionale des élu(e)s Gaspésie-Îles-de-la-Madeleine
That causes a problem in that the processing plants are not operating for quite a number of weeks, which means that the workers are quickly laid off. In our area—the Rocher Percé RCM and, to some extent the Bonaventure RCM—we set up an employer group so that, when the crab fishing season is over, workers can go and work in other fish plants. That made it possible to stabilize employment in the plants and ensure that workers have an adequate number of weeks of work. We are talking about 20, 22, 23 or 24 weeks of work a year, which has stabilized employment. However, with the reductions we are seeing now, it will be far more difficult to find placements for all these workers in other fish plants if the fish stocks have not increased.
That is also part of what I was explaining. We talk about insecurity, and that insecurity also affects the workers, because they will end up leaving the business and we will have trouble recruiting new ones. Right now, some industries are abstaining from developing new products, because they know they will not be able to find workers to come in for only two or three weeks. That is the problem the employer group wanted to resolve, but in a very serious situation such as the one these days, we will have trouble keeping that operation going in our area.
10:45 a.m.
Conservative
10:45 a.m.
Liberal
Scott Andrews Liberal Avalon, NL
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Earlier, Mr. Cousineau, you briefly referred to the cod moratorium. Since the cod moratorium, have you seen any increase in cod and groundfish stocks over the past 10 to 20 years?
10:45 a.m.
Coordinator, Mouvement Action-Chômage Pabok Inc.
I am not directly connected to the fishery, but based on what we hear, groundfish stocks have improved in recent years. I really cannot elaborate any further, because I am not directly involved in fish harvesting. Nor am I personally aware of the results of surveys recently carried out by the Department.
10:50 a.m.
President, Association des crabiers gaspésiens inc.
No, groundfish stocks are declining even if there is no fishing. Only seal stocks are going up.
10:50 a.m.
Liberal
Scott Andrews Liberal Avalon, NL
I have a question regarding regulatory changes, Mr. Desbois. Because of the market conditions and resources in decline, is there any need to correct or make changes to regulations to allow fishing enterprises to harvest more economically? Can we change DFO regulations for fishers?
10:50 a.m.
General Director, Conférence régionale des élu(e)s Gaspésie-Îles-de-la-Madeleine
There are definitely improvements to be made. We also need to give some thought to rationalization in the industry. Mr. Desbois was talking about this earlier; there has been a significant increase in the number of stakeholders in the crab fishing industry. This is happening in other areas as well. Our industry is too sensitive to market fluctuations.
In that sense, consideration must be given to the fact that everyone in the industry needs to be able to draw some benefit from it if we want it to be sustainable. However, under the current system, it is not possible to ensure the cost effectiveness of all the operations, whether it be the fishery, the plants or our communities. I keep coming back to this, but it is absolutely critical to reduce the level of insecurity if we want to increase the cost effectiveness of the industry and develop it further, rather than systematically reacting to the market and to the resource.
I believe we could do a much better job by directly involving all the stakeholders in the development of management and governance structures that reflect local realities.
10:50 a.m.
Liberal
Scott Andrews Liberal Avalon, NL
Are there any regulations that are currently restricting enterprises from becoming more economical? Are fishers wanting to combine or purchase new licences for additional quota and being prevented from doing so by obsolete regulations?
10:50 a.m.
President, Association des crabiers gaspésiens inc.
In this region, the answer to that is yes and no. Things are quite difficult. In terms of fishing multiple species, as I was explaining earlier in my presentation, the vast majority of our members have only one licence. Even though fishing other species is put forward as a solution, we are not able to harvest other fish. We do not have the licences and we do not have the right to buy a licence to fish shrimp or lobster. At the same time, the Department is allowing lobster and groundfish fishers to harvest crab. But we cannot do that.
10:50 a.m.
General Director, Conférence régionale des élu(e)s Gaspésie-Îles-de-la-Madeleine
There you have an excellent example of a regulation that acts as an obstacle to stabilizing fishing activity. It is allowed in one direction, but not the other. Why? That is the question we should be asking. These are similar, overlapping regulations that result in a fisheries management system that creates a great deal of insecurity, without allowing for stability at all levels. We have to look at potentially rationalizing the fleet. As Mr. Desbois was saying, we cannot be constantly managing economic problems and managing the fishery. It seems as though the two are forever being lumped together.
10:50 a.m.
Bloc
Raynald Blais Bloc Gaspésie—Îles-de-la-Madeleine, QC
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Perhaps we could give Gérard-Raymond Blais and Léo Lelièvre an opportunity to provide a little more detail about what they were mentioning earlier.
Mr. Lelièvre, you talked about tax exemptions for processors and isolation allowances. Would you mind elaborating on that?
10:50 a.m.
Acting Reeve, Municipalité régionale de comté du Rocher Percé
Mr. Blais, there was a time, about 15 years ago, when we received an isolation allowance in the Gaspé region. That was helpful to people. They paid less tax because of that allowance. Given that we live in a remote area, something you know as well as I do, the isolation allowance would really help people in my RCM. A lot of people raised it with me and asked me about it. We have even talked about it within the RCM. The government gives an isolation allowance to people in the Magdalen Islands, so why not to people in the Gaspé region?
10:55 a.m.
Bloc
Raynald Blais Bloc Gaspésie—Îles-de-la-Madeleine, QC
And what about the tax exemption for processors?
10:55 a.m.
Acting Reeve, Municipalité régionale de comté du Rocher Percé
That would be a very good thing, as a way of encouraging people to look to other species. You know as well as I do that the US dollar and the current exchange rate are not helping much these days. So, a tax exemption is an attractive option.
10:55 a.m.
Bloc
Raynald Blais Bloc Gaspésie—Îles-de-la-Madeleine, QC
Mr. Blais, Mr. Cousineau, you talked about the almost invisible impact, or, should I say, insidious effect of the uncertainty, and not knowing what is going to happen from one year to the next, in terms of health care and social services. People wonder whether they are going to have work, and for how long. That has a huge effect.
You also talked about drug addiction, marital problems, and that sort of thing. Can you elaborate a little more on that? Is this a problem that has grown over time?
