Fisheries Committee on May 24th, 2018

[The Chair, Liberal, Bernadette Jordan]

Good morning, everyone.

Welcome to meeting 103 of the Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans, pursuant to the order of reference of Monday, April 16, 2018, Bill C-68, an act to amend the Fisheries Act and other acts in consequence.

Carrying on with our clause-by-clause, we have Mr. Mark Waddell and Mr. Nick Winfield with us today from the department. Thank you for returning. We're glad to have you back.

(On clause 53)

We will pick up where we left off, on clause 53.

We have amendment LIB-14. Is there any discussion on the amendment?

[The Chair, Liberal, Bernadette Jordan]

Mr. Morrissey.

[Bobby Morrissey, Liberal, Egmont, PE]

This clarifies the application of the transition provisions during the period between royal assent and coming into force of the fish habitat protection provisions of this particular act. The proposed changes will respond to concerns raised by industry associations—the Mining Association of Canada—particularly with regards to transition provisions, in clause 53 in the bill. The amendment will reflect the government's policy principle that no project will be sent back to the beginning of the process and more closely align with the transition process it provides. That was a key issue addressed by the Mining Association in their brief before the committee.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bernadette Jordan]

Is there any other discussion on amendment LIB-14?

(Amendment agreed to on division)

(Clause 53 as amended agreed to on division)

[The Chair, Liberal, Bernadette Jordan]

Do I have the committee's permission to group clauses 54 to 58?

(Clauses 54 to 58 inclusive agreed to on division)

Mr. Arnold.

[Mel Arnold, Conservative, North Okanagan—Shuswap, BC]

Could the member explain why section 9 comes into force on the first anniversary of...?

[The Chair, Liberal, Bernadette Jordan]

Mr. Arnold, the amendment wasn't moved.

(Clause 59 agreed to)

(On clause 9)

We'll now go back to clause 9, which we had stand on Tuesday.

We are on amendment NDP-6.

I will say that if NDP-6 is adopted, LIB-1.1 cannot be moved because there is a line conflict.

[Larry Miller, Conservative, Bruce—Grey—Owen Sound, ON]

Can we just have a recap of why it was that we allowed clause 9 to stand?

[The Chair, Liberal, Bernadette Jordan]

It was to clarify some language. I believe that is what they had asked for.

Mr. Donnelly, did you want to address NDP-6?

[Fin Donnelly, NDP, Port Moody—Coquitlam, BC]

Madam Chair, I'm not going to move this one.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bernadette Jordan]

Okay.

We are on LIB-1.1.

Mr. Rogers.

[Churence Rogers, Liberal, Bonavista—Burin—Trinity, NL]

Before we deal with LIB-1.1, I'd like to ask permission to propose subsection 6(3), an amendment to this LIB-1.1.

As a proposed subsection, 6.3 reads:

The major fish stock referred to in sections 6.1 and 6.2 are to be prescribed by regulations.

That would be incorporated in LIB-1.1.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bernadette Jordan]

It's quite a long amendment so we will give you some time to have a look at that and the proposed subsection.

We'll suspend for two minutes.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bernadette Jordan]

Mr. Rogers did you want to speak to this, please?

[Churence Rogers, Liberal, Bonavista—Burin—Trinity, NL]

There's one correction in the French version. Pat is going to make a comment on that.

[Pat Finnigan, Liberal, Miramichi—Grand Lake, NB]

There is an error in the French translation.

The amendment should read:

Les principaux stocks halieutiques auxquels les sections 6.1 et 6.2 font référence doivent être prescrits par des règlements.

Instead of “regulations”, “règlements” is the proper word.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bernadette Jordan]

Mr. Arnold.

[Mel Arnold, Conservative, North Okanagan—Shuswap, BC]

I was unable to get in my translation device in time to hear the translation. Would you mind repeating? My apologies.

[Pat Finnigan, Liberal, Miramichi—Grand Lake, NB]

I'll read the whole corrected text.

We ask that amendment LIB-1.1 be amended by adding a sub-clause 6.3 stipulating that:

6.3 The major fish stocks referred to in sections 6.1 and 6.2 are to be prescribed by regulations.

Instead of “regulations”, the last word is “règlements”. That's the only word that's been changed.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bernadette Jordan]

Mr. Donnelly.

[Fin Donnelly, NDP, Port Moody—Coquitlam, BC]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Given that this is the first time I've seen this, I'm wondering if Mr. Rogers can give us a rationale, a bit of an overview of what this is.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bernadette Jordan]

Mr. Rogers.

[Churence Rogers, Liberal, Bonavista—Burin—Trinity, NL]

Overall, if you look at the total amendment, it's primarily aimed at dealing with issues around stock conservation and endangered stocks. I'll use for example the cod fishery in Newfoundland and Labrador right now. It was a major decline in 2018. Obviously, the minister has to take steps to monitor what's happening with that fishery, managing it, and this amendment is aimed to try to promote proper management, keeping conservation uppermost in mind and trying to minimize any future damage to that kind of a stock.

The subamendment I introduced, the 6.3, was added because we felt as we reviewed this amendment that there needed to be some kind of provision indicating the obligations that are in 6.1 and 6.2, and that they only apply to fish stocks prescribed by these regulations in order to narrow the scope of the legislative obligation and essentially would not apply to all fish stocks, but only those prescribed in the particular regulations that we're talking about. If we do not add this provision, all obligation will come into force upon royal assent, which would be extremely challenging to accomplish and potentially open the department to some legal challenges. That was the tidying up piece that we did after we asked this to stand.

That's the amendment and the intent of the amendment is very responsible management and erring on the side of conservation and good management.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bernadette Jordan]

Mr. Arnold.

[Mel Arnold, Conservative, North Okanagan—Shuswap, BC]

I'd like to ask for further explanation from Mr. Rogers. Would this amendment only apply the requirement for the minister to set limits on sustainability to fish stocks that were managed under regulation, not all fish stocks?