Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
Gentlemen, I'm pleased that you were able to come and speak with us today. What you do with the services your department provides for Canadians and for Canada is very important. I think we could all benefit from having more opportunities to sit and ask you questions and have a dialogue.
Let me start with a couple of questions. What I'll do, because our time is somewhat constrained, is ask you probably three questions together, and then maybe the appropriate person will provide me with the answer.
In your initial presentation, you talked about streamlining of services. You talked about modernization. It's all around the cuts of $79 million over three years to the department. A number of us are very concerned about the impact of those cuts and the impact of the changes.
There's a lot going on right now. We heard from Justice Cohen, of course, on matters as they affect the Fraser River sockeye. Of course the issues he raised relate to fisheries on all coasts and in the interior.
I want to ask you about aquaculture. In Nova Scotia in particular, as you know, the Government of Nova Scotia is introducing a strategy, and a number of communities are extremely concerned about the impact of open pen fish farms on the traditional fishery, in particular lobsters. Your department has a very important role in ensuring that proper assessment and monitoring enforcement are done.
I raise that also in connection with what Justice Cohen said about aquaculture on the west coast, in his recommendation 3, when he said:
The Government of Canada should remove from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans’ mandate the promotion of salmon farming as an industry and farmed salmon as a product.
He also said there was a conflict between the mandate to protect fish and fish habitat and the promotion of salmon farming as an industry and farmed salmon as a product.
In that context, I'd like you to provide for me some answer on how it is your department will provide any comfort to the people who are concerned about the impact of farming salmon in Nova Scotia.
The second question I want to ask you about is with respect to lobster trap tags. There have been ongoing negotiations with the industry in the maritime and Atlantic regions and in Quebec around tags and the responsibility for them. It's an important conservation method, I think we all agree.
The government has proposed to no longer issue tags themselves, which had provided a certain level of control, but to turn that over to the private sector. The industry is extraordinarily concerned about that for fear of losing control over the ability to conserve and to control effort.
The industry has asked the department to allow for a year's transition into who will issue them—in other words, for the department to continue to issue them this year. They have even reluctantly said that during that year they will pay the costs, but they want the DFO to continue to have responsibility for issuing the tags; give them a year to figure out how it is they can best do it, and in a way that controls the whole question of effort.
So I'd like you to answer for me why it is, given the problems facing the lobster fleet right now, you are continuing to try to impose this change against the overwhelming will of the fishermen.
My last question at this point is on the issue of controlling agreements. Controlling agreements, as you know, have an impact on the policy of preserving the independence of the inshore fleet in Atlantic Canada, known commonly as the owner-operator fleet separation policy. Those controlling agreements are to end in 2014. I understand that a couple of Nova Scotia Conservative MPs have appealed to your department and to the minister to allow for this time limit to go by and for the particular processes to not have those agreements ended.
As somebody within DFO has said to the minister, these controlling agreements compromise the integrity of the owner-operator fleet separation policy. If they're not ended in 2014, as they said they were going to be ended seven years ago, then that may very well jeopardize the integrity of preserving the owner-operator fleet separation policy, flying in the face of Minister Ashfield's commitment to that policy as declared in September.
I wonder if you would please take a moment and respond to those questions.