Evidence of meeting #12 for Fisheries and Oceans in the 41st Parliament, 2nd session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was industry.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Conservative
Robert Sopuck Conservative Dauphin—Swan River—Marquette, MB
I'm pleased to see that. Too often industries ask for streamlined and efficient regulations without being specific, so I'm glad you have specifics.
You talked about the outside investment potential. Can you elaborate on that? Do we have international aquaculture companies that want to invest in Canada but currently are prevented from doing so?
February 24th, 2014 / 4:30 p.m.
Executive Director, Canadian Aquaculture Industry Alliance
It's a good question. Last year, over $500 million was invested in salmon farming aquaculture globally. The majority of our companies in British Columbia are part of international companies. Those companies are also investing in Norway, Chile, and Scotland. Even our companies on the east coast are also investing in other areas besides Canada. When we looked at it all, only 7% of that amount was coming back to Canada, which is really just maintenance dollars—turning the lights on, doing that kind of thing. It's not money for new capital investment.
At the boardroom tables of these global companies, they're looking to see who has opportunity for growth and where that investment dollar is going to go, and Canada doesn't have it, so we don't get it. It's there to invest. If we had the climate and the certainty to attract new investment, we'd get it.
Conservative
Robert Sopuck Conservative Dauphin—Swan River—Marquette, MB
On the environmental issues related to aquaculture.... On the positive side—and I think most of the environmental issues are positive for aquaculture—given that Atlantic salmon are the prime fish grown in net-pen facilities, it's true that we will never have to fish wild Atlantic salmon stocks again. Is that correct?
Executive Director, Canadian Aquaculture Industry Alliance
That's absolutely correct.
Our industry takes pressure off the wild stocks, and that's an important piece. We know it's aquaculture that's going to meet this growing demand and we can do that, and we can do that sustainably. It's an important thing.
Conservative
Robert Sopuck Conservative Dauphin—Swan River—Marquette, MB
Actually, to me, that is the most important benefit of aquaculture.
Regarding freshwater aquaculture—I happen to come from Manitoba, and prairie Canada has untapped potential. There's that facility that you're aware of in Lake Diefenbaker. Can you talk a little bit about the potential for aquaculture growth in the inland freshwater regions of Canada?
Executive Director, Canadian Aquaculture Industry Alliance
It's huge. We haven't even examined the potential there because we're focused on getting a foundation for some of the other more existing products. When we talk about potential for aquaculture, it's not just on the two coasts. It's in every province and there are all kinds of lakes that can have aquaculture and lots of land-based facilities that could augment existing agricultural operations.
Conservative
Robert Sopuck Conservative Dauphin—Swan River—Marquette, MB
What species of fish could we grow in fresh water? What's the potential for freshwater aquaculture?
Executive Director, Canadian Aquaculture Industry Alliance
Rainbow trout is an obvious one and Arctic char is another. Even species that we haven't even grown in Canada yet—tilapia is another one that we're involved in.... I think that you can even see new species starting out if we had that energy to start growing and diversifying to new species.
Conservative
Robert Sopuck Conservative Dauphin—Swan River—Marquette, MB
In one of your answers to Mr. MacAulay, I thought I heard you say that there are technologies out there that we have not taken advantage of for our aquaculture industry. Did I hear that right?
Executive Director, Canadian Aquaculture Industry Alliance
I'm not sure that I said we haven't taken advantage of it. What I meant to say was that industry will be the first to take advantage of something if it's appropriate or the right thing to do. When you look at all the levels of changes in technology—whether it's systems for the farm, monitoring systems, environmental testing systems, or cage strength—there are so many different types of technology that industry will move to quickly. The information is there and they'll move to it if it's the right thing to do. I'm sure they'll continue to find new technologies, but Canada is certainly leading in that arena as well.
Conservative
Robert Sopuck Conservative Dauphin—Swan River—Marquette, MB
My colleague, Mr. Weston, talked about the recommendation from one of our reports regarding a centre of excellence for aquaculture. Is that something that the industry would support? I don't want to put you on the spot, but would they also support that financially?
Executive Director, Canadian Aquaculture Industry Alliance
I wouldn't be able to comment on that until we actually saw the proposal, but in general the industry is supportive of and invests in research and development, so it certainly is a possibility.
Conservative
Robert Sopuck Conservative Dauphin—Swan River—Marquette, MB
Can you discuss the state of aquaculture research in Canada now? Do we have universities that have researchers who specialize in aquaculture research, and what are they investigating?
Executive Director, Canadian Aquaculture Industry Alliance
We do; there are several. Dalhousie University just announced a chair of sustainable aquaculture, and it is being funded in part by industry. So there certainly are universities that are doing work. Of course, DFO is doing work as well.
I would say that there is less production-oriented or practically oriented research; much of the research is more regulatory. Not to downplay the importance of that, I would say that compared with some of our competitors, we are not funding that production-related research anymore.
Conservative
Robert Sopuck Conservative Dauphin—Swan River—Marquette, MB
I certainly agree with that, because in agricultural schools at universities a large portion of what they do relates to production.
Where in the world is the best production research being done, and what are they keying on?
Executive Director, Canadian Aquaculture Industry Alliance
I would say that even in terms of feed Canada is doing some very good research in cooperation with feed research centres in Chile and feed research centres in Norway.
I would have to get back to you on this question, but we certainly have a sense of what's going on. This is not to say that we don't have research going on in Canada; I just think that we could do more in that production-related stream.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Rodney Weston
Thank you very much, Mr. Sopuck.
Ms. Salmon, I want to say thank you very much on behalf of the committee for coming to appear before us today and for taking the time to answer our questions. We appreciate your time.
Thank you.
We'll suspend for a few minutes and then will go in camera.
[Proceedings continue in camera]