Fisheries Committee on May 5th, 2015

[Lawrence MacAulay, Liberal, Cardigan, PE]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

If you wish to continue your thought, go ahead, and then I'll ask you a question.

[Peter Borowski]

As I said, I've been involved in conservation since the 1970s. Going back, there were four fisheries employees in this region, which runs from the American border all the way up to Township 51 in this province. Those were field people.

They went out on Lake Dauphin. They created spawning ripple structures on the major streams that go into Lake Dauphin, which is a major walleye sport fishery in this province. They were engaged in getting stocking trout and trying different fish and doing a tremendous amount of work.

That has basically ground to a halt because, as Mr. Connolly said, when you can't go to the field to do the job, you aren't doing much of a job. The knowledge and the expertise are there, but without money to operate, nothing happens. It's a very sad comment to go from the 1970s to now. Luckily, we sport fishing people are here with access to funds, so that we can try to do some of this.

The majority of us—I don't include myself in it, obviously—are still working people who have jobs, who have to earn a living. We're all doing this after hours or even by taking days off. Mr. Connolly could be hitting his thumb with a hammer right now, but he's sitting here and pleading our case for better fisheries and better fisheries management.

[Lawrence MacAulay, Liberal, Cardigan, PE]

Thank you very much.

Basically, what you're telling me is that you need more dollars, wherever they come from, in order to make sure that you protect the fishery. That's where you're coming from.

[Jeffrey Connolly]

To protect the fishery and to ensure that money is being spent in this province, that tourism is a huge factor in the economy. That's the key.

[Lawrence MacAulay, Liberal, Cardigan, PE]

Thank you very much.

I would like you to elaborate a bit on what is a real problem in any fishery. You spoke about invasive species with your example of the boat at the border and so on. What needs to be done?

I certainly agree that education promotes exactly what wrongs people are doing. The gentleman you're talking about who came across the border with the boat understood what the problems were, but most of society would not realize the harm they commit by taking certain species into different areas.

I'd like you to expand on what needs to be done more at borders because if we do not do it then we're going to have these invasive species, and also elaborate on what more you would like to do in the education and promotion of what harm they cause when, let's say, people bring a boat from one area to another and don't have it sprayed properly or cleaned.

[Jeffrey Connolly]

I believe in North Dakota—and Brad, you might be able to back me up—if you move a boat from one lake to another lake, you must have a document that says you washed it down in a wash station. They have a lot of invasive species.

But basically at the border, it's pretty cut and dried. It's pretty basic. You have to check the lightbulbs. All this information is out there. It's nothing new. There are rules and regulations that exist all across this country. They just have to be put into place.

Rob, you might be able to explain this a little bit more.

[Lawrence MacAulay, Liberal, Cardigan, PE]

To be able to make sure when the boat comes across the border at least that it's sprayed, that would be essential.

[Rob Olson]

Yes.

[Lawrence MacAulay, Liberal, Cardigan, PE]

Mr. Olson, if I were to hire somebody to promote any fishery, I'd hire you. I thought you were going to come right through the screen. Talk about a man who's emotionally connected, you certainly are, and it's certainly quite obvious you love the job you do. I want to say that's a credit to you and a great asset to the fishery.

[Rob Olson]

Thank you.

[Lawrence MacAulay, Liberal, Cardigan, PE]

We've never had quite that many witnesses who seem to be so emotionally connected to what they do.

You're talking about the 95 group clubs you have and what they do. Is that all done voluntarily? Do you raise all the funds to do that?

Also, you talk about people coming from all over the world to fish in different areas in your province. What type of promotion do you have in order to make sure that continues or expands?

[Rob Olson]

On the first question, the funds for our clubs, they get the odd provincial grant but very few. The money is 90% private. It's membership dues. They put on local fundraisers as Mr. Connolly and Mr. Borowski were just talking about in Swan River. Our clubs do the same things. They put on local fundraisers. They have raffles. They work their butts off to raise the dollars privately, and then they spend it locally. They appreciate what they do. They value their money because it's hard to raise.

There's one big part to this. What the provincial government has been getting in Manitoba it has been getting out of the fish and wildlife business steadily for a decade. We understand health care is expensive, and we have an aging population, and crime. There are big issues. We know that; we get that. But the thing we don't get is we are such a cheap date as a recreational fishing community. We're talking about small dollars and we're talking about massive leverage.

If you put a little bit of money into these communities, you're going to get back tenfold in private fundraising. You get leverage. Those recreational grants kick-start things. You can't afford to pay it all. You have all these other big needs as a federal-provincial government, but you can kick-start stuff.

Those little grants are so important now more than ever because the province is getting out of that business. We cannot afford to hire a whole bunch of people to enforce fishery regulations anymore. You can't afford to pay us for all these spawning structures, but you have us. We'll do it. We can be your fish cops. We care about those streams. We're not going to let people hurt those streams. No one cares about those streams like us because we live in them.

So yes, it's private money, and yes, we'll continue to do it because we have to, because we can't help ourselves. We have that passion for it.

What was the second question?

[Lawrence MacAulay, Liberal, Cardigan, PE]

You attract a lot of fishery people from around the world. What type of promotion do you use to make sure that continues or expands?

[Rob Olson]

I'll keep it really short and pass this one to the Swan River guys because I think they know a little bit more about this than I do. One thing I will say the province has worked really hard at is Tourism Manitoba. They have done a really great job of promoting our fishing in other countries around the world. I've seen their ads as I've travelled globally. I've seen the ads and I think they've done a great job of that. So I will say hats off to the province for doing that.

I will note they just cut their budget, though, in this recent budget. They cut Tourism Manitoba's budget again. I think a lot of the credit goes to them, but I'll let Mr. Connolly and Mr. Borowski speak about promotion.

[Jeffrey Connolly]

It's pretty much a world of technology that we live in. We produced a website. For example, I just travelled to Costa Rica. When you do, you go online and you google “fishing Costa Rica”. So you go online and you google “fishing Manitoba” and you see what pops up. That's the world we live in, so the more information we can get out there, whether it's provincial, whether it's private sport fishing groups like mine and Mr. Olson's, the better.

You can go to the big sport shows, but realistically it is the world of technology. Everyone has a phone. You can google the world. As long as you have any way to advertise yourself out there.... Tourism Manitoba does a really good job and, as Mr. Olson said, they have been cut pretty heavily.

In the north of Manitoba there are a lot of sport fishing lodges. They do well. The dollar is a huge factor as everybody in government knows. When the dollar is down it's a benefit to us in tourism. When the dollar goes strong, unfortunately it's not. But realistically, I think people look for themselves now so you have to be able to have that access in the media, in the electronic media.

[Lawrence MacAulay, Liberal, Cardigan, PE]

Thank you very much.

You talk about lodges. In your recreational fishery, do you have catch and release? Do you have data on the mortality rate, and what do you do to educate people to make sure that the mortality rate is going down instead of up?

[Jeffrey Connolly]

For example, for catch and release we have Mr. Lamont. He's been at the schools, where that was one of the things we discussed; we showed kids how to actually hold a fish, how to do catch and release. Also there's the point that we're not just catch and release; we also like to eat fish. But we encourage people to try to put the females back. They're the ones that are producing.

So it's all about education. The more we can get out to access funds to give them to schools, however we can educate people, the better. It's important. Mortality on catch and release, it's all according to how a fisherman handles the fish.

[Rob Olson]

There are lots of good studies about fish mortality with fishing, and we've come a long way, through local groups, like the one these gentlemen from Swan River represent. In the province, we communicate continually about how to handle fish properly and we've been doing that for 20 years.

So I see it now. When you're out on the lakes, you see people handling fish far better than they used to. We've gone barbless in Manitoba. I think we've come a long way in reducing fish mortality in general, and catch and release now is just part of our culture. People just know that now. So from when I was a child to today, it's night and day, the difference in how we treat the fish now. There's so much more respect and it's so much better. We just keep working at that and just keep trying to get better.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rodney Weston]

Thank you very much.

[Jeffrey Connolly]

Back to the catch and release, yes, as Mr. Olson said, I can remember as a kid you would go out and catch your limit as much as you could. Now you'll catch as many fish as you can, and you might bring one home just because you'll maybe have one fresh fish, but sometimes you go home and you let them all go. It's the attitude of the fisherman now.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rodney Weston]

Thank you.

Mr. Weston.

[John Weston, Conservative, West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast—Sea to Sky Country, BC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

My good friend and colleague Mr. MacAulay just said a minute ago that we don't often get witnesses who are as passionate as you are about what you're doing. It's really been a pleasure to hear you.

I want to say that Mr. Sopuck probably really stuck his neck out bringing people whom he represents and cares about right into the room with his colleagues, who know him well.

[Voices]

Oh, oh!

[John Weston, Conservative, West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast—Sea to Sky Country, BC]

You know, you really like to see an elected official who draws on his extensive experience, who works in a wheelhouse of relevance for the people he represents, and then takes those gifts not only for the people he represents but also spreads them around the country. I've had the pleasure of having him in my riding, as have my colleagues. He's taken your passion and translated it right around Canada. It's been a real pleasure to be at his shoulder as he's led our charge into this recreational fisheries partnership program. This is an exciting day for all of us to hear how it's rolling out where you are.

I was really intrigued to hear you wax so eloquently about the importance of recreational fisheries.

I'll ask you first, Mr. Olson, to elaborate on what you said about how it energizes people, and on what you think has been the involvement of people in this specific program that has put $55 million into angling. How has it been specifically borne out in your community?

[Rob Olson]

I think the way it's been borne out is that, from what I've seen in Manitoba, it creates partnerships.

There are two things here. First, there's this fishing passion. To my mind, this is an intelligent, targeted grant. It's targeting a bunch of us passionate kooks who spend too much of our own time and money on this. The thing about fishing is this passion, which I'll come back to. The thing about the grant is that it leverages the passion. That's a lot of money across Canada. It's not a lot of money in the big picture of the federal budget, I would argue, but it's a lot of money to us. It's a lot of money from a leverage perspective. When you put that money in, you'll get way more than that back from us in our own money.

Those grants are never enough to pay for the whole project, which I think is brilliant. One time I had a donor, when I used to work for another organization, who said, “Don't give an organization too much money, because it will take away their drive for fundraising.” There's a magic about a grant size, right? The right size of grant is significant enough to get a project moving, but it's not so much that it takes away the need to raise other moneys. You want provincial money in there. We want the local community to fundraise and raise dollars too. There's a magic about that. The big thing it does, though, is it creates partnerships in stewardship. It makes the local community feel supported by the federal government. It makes them feel energized.

So there's a real good thing there, but it's the recreational passion thing that drives it. You're tapping into that with that grant, and that is brilliant. That's a brilliant thing to do. I would say, “Where else can you do that?”

It's an incredible strategy, in my mind, for a government to take. I think it's smart.