Fisheries Committee on May 5th, 2015

[The Chair, Conservative, Rodney Weston]

I'll call this meeting to order.

Thank you very much, Mr. Crabbe, for joining us by video conference. I assume that our clerk has advised you that we generally allow about 10 minutes for a presentations from our guests, and then we'll move into questions and answers from our members.

Mr. Crabbe, whenever you're ready, if you want to proceed with your presentation, please do so. The floor is yours.

[Darrell Crabbe, Executive Director, Saskatchewan Wildlife Federation]

Thank you very much.

Good morning, Mr. Chair, and members of the committee.

Thank you for the opportunity to comment on the significance of recreational fishing in Canada. I've reviewed much of the very comprehensive information that you have been presented with by a number of sources on recreational angling from a national perspective. In the interests of not duplicating this information, I'd like to focus on the impact of angling from a provincial point of view.

The Saskatchewan Wildlife Federation was established in 1929 and proudly represents more than 33,000 members in 121 branches across our province. Ours is considered to be, per capita, the largest wildlife conservation organization of its kind in the world.

In opening, I'd like to address the benefits of recreational angling from an economic, conservation, and quality-of-life basis.

The economic impact of the heritage activities—hunting, angling, and trapping—are estimated to be approximately $15 billion annually across Canada. In Saskatchewan, a 2006 provincial government study confirmed that more than $500 million in economic activity was generated in Saskatchewan annually through these activities. This did not include first nation activities. A 2012 update on that information suggests that the number is closer to $600 million today, with $400 million of it derived from angling.

In Saskatchewan, more than 25% of our provincial population participates in fishing every year. Angling provides more than 1,500 full-time equivalents of employment in Saskatchewan. This was prior to Cabela's opening two stores in our province over the past three years and aggressive expansions into hunting and angling retailing by a number of other retailers, such as Canadian Tire and cooperatives.

This FTE total also does not include the employees of the Saskatchewan Wildlife Federation, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, or Saskatchewan Ministry of Environment staff, who number approximately 200.

In most jurisdictions, millions of dollars generated by licence and permit sales support conservation programs and projects.

In 1980, the Saskatchewan Wildlife Federation convinced the provincial government to increase licence costs to create our fish and wildlife development fund or FWDF. Today, 30% of all licensed sales are dedicated to the FWDF and are used to provide habitat and fisheries enhancement and securement, to operate our provincial hatchery, and to provide funding for education, research, and program development in our province. Most of the $4.5 million generated by the fund is matched by NGOs.

From a conservation standpoint, in 2006 the SWF entered into a fisheries enhancement agreement with the provincial government to take on smaller enhancement projects that, although numerous, were considered difficult to manage. To date, we have completed more than 70 projects, many of which have turned out to be major enhancement works, well into the millions of dollars.

The SWF now oversees or partners in all fisheries work in the province. Effective October 2014, we have also taken on the administration role for the fisheries component of the FWDF and we administer and manage the provincial fish hatchery and culture station. We will be celebrating that facility's 100th anniversary this year.

In addition, millions of dollars are raised each year by wildlife federations to protect and enhance fisheries habitat and to provide funding for research, outdoor education, and management. We also actively finance and provide thousands of volunteer man hours towards invasive species programs and species at risk research and initiatives.

From a financial, volunteerism, and advocacy point of view, anglers and hunters are the backbone of today's modern conservation movement.

The quality of life benefits provided by these heritage activities are very difficult to quantify. In a recent survey in Saskatchewan, more than 50% of Saskatchewan residents stated that their proximity to and available access to nature were paramount in their decision as to where they would live. Another recent poll concluded that of the one quarter of a million Saskatchewan residents who annually fish, 79% considered the activity to be a major part of their personal culture, lifestyle, or tradition.

I personally grew up in a family whose social and family lives revolved around these activities and time spent in the outdoors. Over the years, I've come to realize that we share this way of life with millions of others in Canada from all walks of life, and its pervasive influence on our lives would escape most attempts to describe it. I can only suggest that participating in heritage activities with family and friends and individually is the essential component of the Canadian quality-of-life fabric that makes the hunting, angling, and trapping community who, why, and what we are.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rodney Weston]

Thank you very much, Mr. Crabbe. We certainly do appreciate your presentation.

Now we'll move into questions and answers, and we'll start off with Monsieur Lapointe.

[François Lapointe, NDP, Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Crabbe, I hope you can hear the interpretation into English.

[Darrell Crabbe]

Yes, sir.

[François Lapointe, NDP, Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC]

According to Lorne Fitch, who spent a number of years as a biologist within the Alberta Fish and Wildlife Division, the province is experiencing a fishing crisis. In an article published on April 23, 2015, he said that the crisis was not caused by the overfishing attributable to recreational fishers, but rather by the cumulative effect of the exploitation of resources. That leads to fish habitat destruction, especially the destruction of certain spawning habitats in the headwaters.

Do you think the earlier stages of a crisis or a full-blown crisis affects some sectors in terms of resource availability for recreational fishers and, if so, what specific sectors of the province are affected? In fact, could you tell us what can cause this problem and give us some suggestions to improve the situation?

[Darrell Crabbe]

I would say that that is not the case in Saskatchewan. There is not overuse by any anglers, whether commercial fishing or recreational angling. I would agree that one of our biggest issues in Saskatchewan remains access for fish to spawning areas. In Saskatchewan our road system is very elaborate. We probably have more roads in Saskatchewan than most of the other provinces combined. Of course, that has created difficulties for fish spawning in historical spawning areas. One of the major proposals we have here is rebuilding those road structures to allow for fish passage.

It certainly is an impact that might not be that important with one single roadway, but a lot of times we have several roadways and many miles of historic spawning grounds to re-access.

[François Lapointe, NDP, Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC]

Based on your expertise, would you say that we have to implement technical solutions to ensure that the construction and reconstruction of those roads and highways are not harming the development of spawning grounds? How could the federal partner help adopt solutions?

[Darrell Crabbe]

Absolutely, we do them all the time. I mentioned the 70 projects we have undertaken. Probably 50 of them were exactly that, reconstructing roadways to allow for fish passage.

I would comment that we have not used any federal money to do any of those projects, because of the requirement not to have any other level of government funding available or used within the program. We have now moved the fish and wildlife development fund away from provincial government control to an NGO, which we manage, and we're hopeful that we'll be able to access some of the federal fishery dollars to help us continue the work we're doing here in the province.

[François Lapointe, NDP, Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC]

Now that the framework gives you access to federal support, could you determine with some accuracy what assistance from the federal partner you would need?

[Darrell Crabbe]

I would say that our biggest issue when we look at the fishery dollars as they're being allocated or accessed is that they don't really seem to identify the opportunity at the community level. We find in Saskatchewan that the vast majority of opportunities we have are in small-town Saskatchewan, or are in the proximity to small-town Saskatchewan. Again, we haven't accessed any federal dollars yet. We certainly hope to in the future, but our first take on it is that many of those dollars seem to be directed toward large national NGOs rather than smaller NGOs like the SWF, where we can bring things down to the community level.

[François Lapointe, NDP, Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC]

What you just said is interesting. In other words, even if a small NPO has a highly relevant mandate and is supported by the community, the fact that it is small makes its access to federal funding more difficult.

Have you noted that kind of a dynamic on more than one occasion?

[Darrell Crabbe]

Absolutely. Just recently, the vast majority of the moneys that were provided for habitat securement went to Ducks Unlimited and Nature Conservancy, and it becomes so onerous on smaller NGOs to access those dollars that, to be quite blunt with you, we don't see the value in even trying to access those dollars, so we don't try.

[François Lapointe, NDP, Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC]

In brief, small organizations are even thinking about giving up on the idea of asking the federal government for assistance because access to that assistance is so difficult.

You have extensive expertise. I am sure that, in the past, if you were refused access to government support, you would not simply be told that your organization was too small. They must have given you another argument. Why would the federal government not support the smaller NPOs?

[Darrell Crabbe]

Oh, I wouldn't say that they're not supporting them.

First of all, the basis with the federal fisheries opportunities had a requirement in there that said that you couldn't utilize other levels of government money to leverage the federal program, and in Saskatchewan, all of our fisheries work is conducted by NGOs, utilizing our fish and wildlife development fund, which is considered by the federal government to be a level of government funding, so we were denied our first few. Of course we still have to move on and make sure those jobs get completed, so we're glad to hear that they are looking at changing those requirements within that, and that now that we've moved our fund to an NGO, we won't be experiencing that difficulty.

[François Lapointe, NDP, Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC]

How much time do I have left, Mr. Chair?

[The Chair, Conservative, Rodney Weston]

You have four—sorry, three minutes.

[François Lapointe, NDP, Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC]

I have another note from our research I would like you to comment on.

In 1985, there were 343,300 licensed anglers in Alberta. In 2010, they were only 252,000, a drop of more than 26%. What factors would explain that drop in participation? The data goes from 1985 to 2010. Has the trend been successfully reversed between 2010 and 2015?

You previously said that you increased the license price. What kind of an increase are we talking about? Was it part of the necessary resources to invest in initiatives in order to reverse the trend and bring people back to recreational fishing in your province, Saskatchewan?

[Darrell Crabbe]

We didn't experience the same types of issues. I believe you were referring to Alberta.

In some lakes in Alberta, you actually go through a draw system to be able to access the opportunities to angle on them. If I remember, if my figures are correct, Alberta has about 800 fishable lakes in their province. We have just over 80,000, so we have a lot of Albertans who fish in Saskatchewan. We're not within that area.

The only time we've had a decrease in our number of anglers, which was very short-lived, was when there was a major increase in the cost of licences a number of years ago. We had a decrease for one year in Saskatchewan, but that was quickly brought back up, and I would think that over a 10- or 15-year period, you'll see Saskatchewan licence sales continue to increase every year. We only have 1.1 million people in Saskatchewan and we have over a quarter of a million anglers.

[François Lapointe, NDP, Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC]

You have constructive and positive experience in maintaining the recreational fishing participation rate. What good decisions have you made at the provincial level to be so successful?

[Darrell Crabbe]

Both from a government standpoint and with the NGOs, we promote free fishing weekends. There's a lot of participation by NGOs. Again, we have 121 branches, and probably over 80% of them are involved in maintaining an existing fishery around their area, or spawning grounds, or whatever it might be. So again, it goes back down to the community level. Our branches, through their communities, are heavily involved and heavily invested in the angling opportunities around their communities.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rodney Weston]

Mr. Leef.

[Ryan Leef, Conservative, Yukon, YT]

Mr. Crabbe, thank you, and welcome to committee today.

I appreciate your observations on the recreational fisheries conservation partnership fund. Initially it was a little more of a challenge to access it, largely because, as you mentioned, the stacking of the partner dollars from any other level of government would exclude you from taking advantage of that. Of course, members of the Conservative Hunting and Angling Caucus and members coming from the Hunting and Angling Advisory Panel heard the comment about that being a limitation to the recreational fisheries fund, and that has been changed now. So groups like yours can share provincial dollars as well as that federal funding and can stack it in order to maximize your use of that program.

Of course, you did say you made those changes to the way you've aligned it. But just so you know, those changes have been made, and indeed you can stack those provincial dollars with the recreational fisheries program now.

As I mentioned, in part it did come from the Hunting and Angling Advisory Panel, and I'm just wondering whether Saskatchewan Wildlife Federation has representation on the Hunting and Angling Advisory Panel.

[Darrell Crabbe]

Yes, I'm the representative.

[Ryan Leef, Conservative, Yukon, YT]

How has that been so far in terms of representing angling interests and recreational fishing? Obviously there are going to be some learning curves along the way, but as a starting point, how beneficial has that been to exposing your federation's concerns?