Fisheries Committee on March 24th, 2010

[Yvon Lévesque, Bloc, Abitibi—Baie-James—Nunavik—Eeyou, QC]

You are saying that under capital expenditures, we should find approximately $100 million for small craft harbours.

[Roch Huppé]

It would be maintenance for small craft harbours.

[Yvon Lévesque, Bloc, Abitibi—Baie-James—Nunavik—Eeyou, QC]

Minister, we know that in Nunavik, there is a problem that I have been referring to for a long time. The Inuit are being asked to monitor and analyze the beluga population. The Inuit do this and issue a report. However, you then send in officials to verify this data, and once the officials arrive in these areas, the belugas have already left. The Inuit claim that you do not have an accurate picture of the situation.

Have you thought of a plan to rectify the situation? Will you believe the Inuit who have no advantage in destroying this population that is their livelihood, or will you continue to deprive them of quota because you are not accurately assessing the beluga population?

[Gail Shea, Conservative, Egmont, PE]

Yes, we do co-manage the beluga population with the Inuit. They send their management plan in to us and we agree with the management plan.

[A voice]

This isn't Nunavut; this is Nunavik.

[Gail Shea, Conservative, Egmont, PE]

Nunavik. Excuse me. Sorry, I have the wrong place. I'm going to let David respond to this.

[David Bevan, Assistant Deputy Minister, Fisheries and Aquaculture Management, Department of Fisheries and Oceans]

It's been a recurring problem.

There are problems and difficulties between scientists and the Inuit. We have tried to bring together working groups to address these problems. Of course, it is difficult for us to travel to the far north. There have been meetings with the Inuit and we have tried to agree on the best way to determine the beluga population. We need to continue to do this type of work. We have agreements on the means used to manage this population, but to date, we have not yet agreed on the way to count the population.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rodney Weston]

Thank you.

[Yvon Lévesque, Bloc, Abitibi—Baie-James—Nunavik—Eeyou, QC]

Do I still have some time left? I did not hear the alarm.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rodney Weston]

No, it's all done.

Mr. Donnelly.

[Fin Donnelly, NDP, New Westminster—Coquitlam, BC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Madam Minister, I'm wondering what steps the department is taking in terms of implementing watershed-based ecosystem management related specifically to the fisheries and if in fact there has been an increase in funds or there's an anticipated increase in funds for this form of management.

[Gail Shea, Conservative, Egmont, PE]

We recognize that we have to move to a watershed-based management system simply because we need to look at the big picture because there are so many different stakeholders and users of that watershed.

Maybe Roch can speak to whether there has been an increase in the budget, but we are definitely moving to that type of system, as opposed to one focused on a small piece of that watershed.

[Claire Dansereau]

At this point, it's not a question of having more funding. It's more a question of how we organize ourselves. We do take an ecosystem-based approach. We're not there yet, but our scientists are conscious of it; our fish management folks are conscious of it; our habitat people are conscious of it. So it is part of the thinking in how we organize ourselves, but there are no new moneys attached to that at this point.

[Fin Donnelly, NDP, New Westminster—Coquitlam, BC]

Thank you.

Switching to the coast guard now, I'm wondering, Minister, if you could mention where the funding is for the three armed icebreakers for the north, and specifically the funding for the John. G. Diefenbaker.

[Gail Shea, Conservative, Egmont, PE]

The new polar icebreaker project is certainly well under way. I believe there is $8 million in the budget in this fiscal year for that. I'll ask George to speak specifically to those projects.

[George Da Pont, Commissioner, Canadian Coast Guard, Department of Fisheries and Oceans]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

The funding provided to replace icebreakers so far has just been to replace the Louis S. St. Laurent with a polar icebreaker. The work there is well under way. It's in a relatively detailed design stage. What you see in the estimates before you is to access funding to complete the design work.

Our expectation is that we will go to a full technical design contract some time in the course of this calendar year, and we hope to be in a position to put out a request for proposal for the build contract next calendar year. But there was never funding for three armed icebreakers at any point.

[Fin Donnelly, NDP, New Westminster—Coquitlam, BC]

Thank you.

Finally, if I can get this one in before my time tuns out, there seems to be general agreement, at least on the west coast among many different interests, that there really is a lack of knowledge and research in terms of our understanding of the ocean and ocean conditions, especially on the west coast. I'm wondering if there is a significant increase and a dedicated focus on research for understanding ocean conditions, specifically on the west coast.

[Gail Shea, Conservative, Egmont, PE]

One of the things we try to do with our science budget is to use it in a way that reflects what's happening right now in our fishery so that it's very relevant to what we're doing. For example, we're doing some research on ocean acidification on the west coast.

Because of new technology and because science is so expansive and we can do so many more things, there's much more demand for the science. So we have, I believe, a small increase in our science budget in this fiscal year, if I'm not mistaken.

[Roch Huppé]

It's a fairly stable budget.

[Gail Shea, Conservative, Egmont, PE]

It's a fairly stable budget--pardon me--but we're trying to make it relevant to what's happening right now in fisheries in Canada. We're trying to put the funds where they're most needed and most relevant.

[Fin Donnelly, NDP, New Westminster—Coquitlam, BC]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rodney Weston]

Thank you, Minister.

Mr. Allen.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Welcome, Minister and officials. It's great to see everybody again.

Minister, I have just a couple of questions, because I have only a very short period of time. I was going to say thank you very much for taking the pie in the face and taking one for the team on the seal industry. That was very good. Thank you for that.

You talked a little bit about your prospects when you went to visit some of these other countries. My first question is what are the prospects for continued markets for our seal products to ensure that we can continue to support this industry going forward?

Secondly, we've become very sensitive to the introduction of non-native species and things into waterways. I'm particularly concerned after seeing a special the other night on the Asian carp. It's extraordinary. What have you allocated in terms of funds for the issue of the invasive species?

Maybe the second part of that question, which may be directed better to Claire or David, would be how are we working with the provinces to ensure that we limit the exposure of our waterways to the introduction of non-native species in certain waters?

[Gail Shea, Conservative, Egmont, PE]

Okay. I'll start with the issue on Asian carp and invasive species. We have over $8 million in the budget over two years to deal with aquatic invasive species. A lot of it has to do with dealing with the sea lamprey in the Great Lakes, but it also has to do with research on the Asian carp. We're working quite closely with the United States to ensure the Asian carp does not make its way into the Great Lakes.

We were actually in the United States. Our folks were in the United States in December to assist the United States with a maintenance project on its electrical barrier so that the Asian carp does not make its way into Canada. It's a very serious issue for us. We have plenty of expertise on staff. We'll be meeting with U.S. officials in the near future on this issue, if we haven't already done so, to see how we can continue the collaboration to ensure this species doesn't get out of control and into Canada.

On the issue of seals and the potential in the Chinese market, I believe there's great potential in the Chinese market because it's such a big market. The Chinese tend to eat a lot of protein. I believe there's a great market there for seal meat and seal oil. The CFIA is working with the Government of China to try to pave the way for exporting seal meat and seal oil into China.

There's also another aspect of research on seals that's happening. You're probably aware of this. Medical research is being done on the possibility of transplanting seal heart valves into humans.

I think it's all very exciting. The more we diversify the seal product, the more we will get to a state where we'll have full utilization of the animal and maximum return to the sealers. I think the seal industry has a bright future.

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

As a follow-up question on the annual seal hunt, can you comment on this? There's been a lot of talk about the numbers on the sustainability of the harvest. Based on some of the numbers I've seen, it's more than sustainable. Could you quickly comment on that?