Evidence of meeting #79 for Fisheries and Oceans in the 41st Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was management.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Senior Fisheries Biologist, Acting Manager of Habitat Programs, Government of Yukon
—them finished for them very shortly.
NDP
Philip Toone NDP Gaspésie—Îles-de-la-Madeleine, QC
Okay. So you'll be sending something today or tomorrow.
Director, Fish and Wildlife Branch, Government of Yukon
We have a draft in there. We always have to be concerned. It's always a little bit of a challenge for us when we provide comments that we don't bypass the opportunity for the board. The board is actually responsible for making comments on legislation. It's actually a “shall” clause in the final agreement. Before a government introduces legislation, the fish and wildlife management board shall have an opportunity to review it.
There is a public component to that, and we don't necessarily have that opportunity, so for us to come out as a government and speak to changes without having the benefit of the board's input is a challenge for us. We've been talking with them and trying to work through that piece.
I don't know if that makes sense, but—
NDP
Philip Toone NDP Gaspésie—Îles-de-la-Madeleine, QC
Yes, I understand, and that's a perfectly understandable process. The problem, of course, is that the legislation has already passed, right? We already have the new definition, so would you say that the opportunity for comment has been rather short, then?
NDP
Philip Toone NDP Gaspésie—Îles-de-la-Madeleine, QC
Have the various boards actually had an opportunity to comment on it?
Director, Fish and Wildlife Branch, Government of Yukon
The time is incredibly short, and I don't think the boards had an opportunity to comment, because part of their mandate is to seek public input. For them to do that adequately, they'd need to have some time to go out to the public and entertain their views.
NDP
Philip Toone NDP Gaspésie—Îles-de-la-Madeleine, QC
If I could make a suggestion, perhaps asking DFO for an extension would be appropriate.
Director, Fish and Wildlife Branch, Government of Yukon
We've certainly asked in previous correspondence to have more time to respect the processes under the final agreement.
NDP
Philip Toone NDP Gaspésie—Îles-de-la-Madeleine, QC
Thank you for that.
I'm also wondering about infrastructure. Could you talk about that, about small craft harbours and that sort of infrastructure? I'm not talking about commercial installations. I'm talking about publicly accessible infrastructure such as small craft harbours that may be installed by DFO.
Who are the owners of that infrastructure? What is the state of the infrastructure? Are there any calls for improvements to that infrastructure?
Director, Fish and Wildlife Branch, Government of Yukon
In a nutshell, most of the access points and harbours are not managed by DFO. They are put in place either by the Yukon government or by private commercial operations.
NDP
Philip Toone NDP Gaspésie—Îles-de-la-Madeleine, QC
How do you control the quality of the wharves, then, if it's largely private interests that seem to be driving the building of these wharves? I suspect there would be regulations, then, and inspections regarding the quality of the wharves?
Senior Fisheries Biologist, Acting Manager of Habitat Programs, Government of Yukon
I think just a description of the nature of access would clarify. There's no marine access in Yukon, except for on the north slope, which is not accessible by road. So what we're talking about are essentially boat ramps in lakes and in some cases maybe a breakwater. So there is basically a gravel boat ramp or maybe some concrete lines down to water, typically installed at campgrounds or in a couple of small private marinas on rivers. That is the nature of them. They're relatively small and the amount of infrastructure needed to make sure they are safe is much less than what you need in a marine environment.
Conservative
Patricia Davidson Conservative Sarnia—Lambton, ON
Thanks very much, Mr. Chair.
Thanks, gentlemen, for being with us today.
My riding is around the Great Lakes on the lower part of Lake Huron, so certainly the fishing atmosphere and the fishing location that I'm used to are far different from what you offer in the Yukon. Certainly what I've heard here today is exciting and interesting, and I think that, like many of my colleagues around the table, I would be thrilled to visit and see first-hand some of the wonderful opportunities you have in the Yukon.
I want to go back briefly to the status report on the Yukon fisheries. We've reviewed your 2010 report, and I'm wondering if that is something that's done every five years, or whether there is another report in the drafting stage. How often do you release those reports?
Director, Fish and Wildlife Branch, Government of Yukon
That was the first report in 20 years. We don't have a schedule for additional status reports.
Our fishery section is a very small group, but we do identify our projects, and through the public process, we identify and prioritize the activities we will be working on for the year. We provide that information to the boards and councils, and we demonstrate why we're undertaking those activities.
You can imagine that we have a lot of requests to do fisheries work throughout the territory, so we have a priority process just as any other jurisdiction does. We do report to the board on an annual basis. We don't specifically report on the continuing status of fisheries. It's more of a roll-up of fish and wildlife interests that the board has in front of it. We report to them annually on what we've done and highlight different projects and activities.
Conservative
Patricia Davidson Conservative Sarnia—Lambton, ON
I was interested in what you were saying about the decline in the number of non-resident anglers and the lack of participation by youth. I know you've talked a little bit about that, but you've also talked about the 23 stocked lakes and the fry releases. I think your comment when you talked about the fry releases was that it was a community event and many youth took part in that. Is that part of your strategy to reverse the trend of lower participation by youth, or is that something that's been ongoing for a long time?
Senior Fisheries Biologist, Acting Manager of Habitat Programs, Government of Yukon
I like to take credit for it, as it's part of a very directed strategy, but I think the truth is that it's something we try to do as a general practice. We try to involve the community and involve youth. It's something that young people in particular are really passionate about. It's been ongoing for quite a long time.
Just to talk about that trend, what we've seen is a decline in non-resident anglers, but it's been very gradual. I just want to highlight that. We haven't seen a precipitous decline. We're worried about the future because of the trends we've seen in regard to the average age of anglers, but we haven't started to see the effects of that.
It has been a really good tool for us to forecast what we expect to see. I think that having a component of education and involvement in all the programs we do is going to become increasingly important. More programs in the future that are focused specifically on youth, on getting youths out there angling and on teaching them how to angle, will be increasingly important as well.
Director, Fish and Wildlife Branch, Government of Yukon
We've certainly added to that such things as a family fishing weekend, where basically there's no need for a fishing licence per se. You have conservation officers or fisheries officers who come out and actually help kids fish. That has been very popular. It's actually brought together some of the enforcement and monitoring folks in a bit more positive sense.
There's been a lot of really good take-up throughout the Yukon on those events, where you get people out and they have an officer or a fisheries biologist come along with them and show them how to fish. There are a lot of programs that are moving towards that. We see programs in the south, as well as the U.S. and Alaska, that try to keep that engagement going, and we're trying to pick up on some of that as well.
Liberal
Lawrence MacAulay Liberal Cardigan, PE
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
I don't want to dwell on this subject too long, but I'd just like to know.... Perhaps I haven't been paying proper attention, but just where are you going? With Ms. Davidson's questions on recreational fishery, it's for the local people. Is it the commercial fishery? Is it the recreational fishery with the local people? Or is it the rich angler that you can take in and put in resorts and that type of thing?
What is the long-term view that you would have in order to bring new dollars in the fishing area? I know that we've talked a lot about this. Am I barking up the wrong tree or what?
