Evidence of meeting #28 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 ice.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Executive Director, Canadian Sealers Association
I have some booklets here if you want to take one.
Executive Director, Canadian Sealers Association
If you have any questions, my number is inside here on the back, right here, and our website.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Rodney Weston
Thank you, Mr. Pinhorn. If you don't mind providing those to the clerk, he'll distribute them to the members. We'd appreciate it.
NDP
Robert Chisholm NDP Dartmouth—Cole Harbour, NS
Mr. Chairman, as I conclude, let me just say that I've met in the past with a number of people up in St. Anthony who seal during this particular time of the year. It's a rugged business, but it's an important business in order to make a living for the families. I appreciate that.
Executive Director, Canadian Sealers Association
Absolutely. It's a critical part of what they're doing.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Rodney Weston
Thank you, Mr. Chisholm.
Ms. Davidson, you have seven minutes before we have to recess.
Conservative
Patricia Davidson Conservative Sarnia—Lambton, ON
Could you let me know when I'm at about three minutes, because I want to share my time with Mr. Sopuck.
Conservative
Patricia Davidson Conservative Sarnia—Lambton, ON
Mr. Pinhorn, thanks very much for being here with us this afternoon. I'm sorry that our time is going to be kept to a minimum.
I was very interested in the history that you were giving. I'm from Ontario, so of course I don't know too much about the seal hunt, for sure, but we know the things that we see, and we know the things we read and the things that we hear, and you seem to support the amendments that were coming forth to the marine mammal regulations under Bill C-555. Is that correct?
Conservative
Patricia Davidson Conservative Sarnia—Lambton, ON
Okay, but you also made comments about the fact that it deals only with non-licensed observers and not with licensed observers. So I'm wondering if you could comment a bit more on that, and while you're talking about that, I'm also interested in whether there is air surveillance and air observation that occurs during the seal hunts. If there is, does that cause danger, or potential danger, to the sealers as well?
Executive Director, Canadian Sealers Association
The reason we supported the bill in principle is that when advocating for the sealing industry, it's not very often that we get people who are what we would call like-minded. MP Kerr had the interest to introduce the bill and to increase the distance, and it's a good point in areas where people who are non-licensed may be accessing areas where there's sealing.
Our hope is that now that bill would lead to getting that 10 metres increased to a mile, and that would keep animal rights groups away. They do go in, and they can surround someone who is sealing and not let him get back to his boat. When you're out on the water with ice and all kinds of things it's not far enough.
With respect to air surveillance, they bring out helicopters and they'll hover over a crew for four, five, or six hours at a time, who can't very well seal because they are filming everything they do, and DFO takes the videos and if there is something there that is not according to the regulations, they could be charged. They give these films to DFO and they use them for enforcement purposes. If they have cameras, they can film at very long distances and all that, so there's no need for them today to be within 10 metres of a fishing boat. That's the critical part of this. It's to get at not only the non-licensed observers but the licensed observers too.
Conservative
Conservative
Robert Sopuck Conservative Dauphin—Swan River—Marquette, MB
Thank you.
You outlined the problem, Mr. Pinhorn, very well, but your advice to government was very broad. What would you specifically recommend to the federal government on what we can do to sustain and improve the sealing industry? If you could be as specific as you can, I'd appreciate it.
Executive Director, Canadian Sealers Association
I worked with the Department of Fisheries and Aquaculture in Newfoundland for 28 years. We were doing research. One of the things the government can do is put in some funding. From 1985 to 2001, we had cost-shared agreements. We used to do research on the meat to deodorize the meat and to concentrate the omega levels. The seal oil capsules originated from that program.
What we have to do now is put more focus on the meat, the byproducts, and the oil industry. The oil is rich in omega-3. It's good for a food supplement. We can do a lot more work on the oil, the meat, and the byproducts. The fur will be a byproduct, as it is in the farm industry.
For the last 10 years, it seems as if we've lost sight of the fact that R and D is so critical here to changing everybody's thinking. Last year, the federal government came here and put some hundreds of thousands of dollars into the Northeast Coast Sealers Co-op in terms of doing more work with the meat. What will develop the industry is the sealers bringing in the whole animal to be used: the fat, the hide, the meat, and the byproducts. You bring in the whole unit. I think it would make it more palatable to the world to accept it as an industry, as opposed to going out and harvesting animals traditionally, for just the fur.
Conservative
Robert Sopuck Conservative Dauphin—Swan River—Marquette, MB
Of course, in the wild fur industry across Canada, all of the meat is discarded, yet the wild fur industry exports—I'm thinking about mink, fisher, coyotes, and so on—went from $200 million a year to I think, in the year before last, about $750 million a year. So I'm not sure that the optics of discarding the meat is as serious as some people may think.
Given that there is a scarcity of high-quality protein in the world, do you think that at some point we'll be able to—quote, unquote—wait this out and the markets will come back? Or is that just a hopeless suggestion?
Executive Director, Canadian Sealers Association
Well, I know from the interest the Chinese have expressed to just me, through the sealers association, that they want the meat and the oil. I know that. I always say that politics is interfering with the flow of goods into the United States. The biggest market for seals up to 1970 was the U.S. In terms of our industry in the fifties and sixties, most of the seal products went into the U.S. They love seal meat, but you can't get it in there because of the politics.
Two of the Chinese are going to fly in from China to meet me on the weekend. They're going to meet me up in the north. When I leave here, I'm going northwest. They're flying in here to talk about the seal industry and product development. We think it can be done.
Conservative
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Rodney Weston
Thank you very much, colleagues.
We will recess now for the votes and reconvene immediately afterwards.
Thank you.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Rodney Weston
I call this meeting back to order.
Thank you, Mr. Pinhorn, for waiting.
Mr. MacAulay, you have the floor now for questions.
Liberal
Lawrence MacAulay Liberal Cardigan, PE
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Mr. Pinhorn, welcome, and I'm sorry. It's the way things go around here. Time is short.
You were meeting the Chinese. Could you give us just a little run on what you plan to do. Would you be dealing with the pelts only or are you trying to indicate the importance of the seal meat and the export of seal meat from this country to China? Would that be part of what you're going to try to do with the Chinese delegation? You're meeting two Chinese people concerning the seal industry. I'd just like you to elaborate a bit on that.
Executive Director, Canadian Sealers Association
The Chinese groups I know who are interested in seals are looking at it as a holistic approach. It's not just the pelts, it's not just the oil, it's—