Evidence of meeting #106 for Fisheries and Oceans in the 42nd Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was funding.
A video is available from Parliament.
Deputy Minister, Department of Fisheries and Oceans
Respectfully, what I would like to expand on is that we look at the science. We look at the access—
Deputy Minister, Department of Fisheries and Oceans
We look at a number of pieces. In terms of value, there are a number of ways you could break that out, whether you want to push it to science, indigenous access, or commercial value. We're doing our very best to go through a new process.
Conservative
Deputy Minister, Department of Fisheries and Oceans
We're going to do our best.
Conservative
Todd Doherty Conservative Cariboo—Prince George, BC
Commissioner, we are concerned that you're looking at the Arctic offshore ships, which are being built for the navy, to meet your operational needs, rather than building new icebreakers. Can you outline in writing for us how the Arctic offshore ships meet your operational needs? What are the limitations from a Canadian Coast Guard operational perspective?
Commissioner of the Canadian Coast Guard, Department of Fisheries and Oceans
Madam Chair, the AOPS vessel is an extremely capable vessel for Arctic patrol. It's not built to be an escort icebreaker, and it's not under consideration as an escort icebreaker. I'm happy to put that in writing, as requested.
Conservative
Todd Doherty Conservative Cariboo—Prince George, BC
Thank you.
Commissioner, can you table with the clerk by the end of this week a report on how the Louis S. St-Laurent heavy icebreaker was used from November 2016 to May 2017, and November 2017 to May 2018? Please also indicate the missions on which it was used to break polar class 3 ice during the last two years.
Commissioner of the Canadian Coast Guard, Department of Fisheries and Oceans
I don't want to over-promise on this. I don't know that we'd be able to break it down to the number of times the Louis had to break polar class 3 ice multi-year.... Icebreaker captains and commanding officers encounter a variety of situations in a single day, and to break that out into a number of times may simply not be possible from an operational perspective.
Conservative
Todd Doherty Conservative Cariboo—Prince George, BC
Thank you.
With that, Madam Chair, I'm going to turn my time over to Mr. Deltell.
Liberal
Conservative
Gérard Deltell Conservative Louis-Saint-Laurent, QC
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Ladies and gentlemen, I'd like to discuss the agreement further to the contract awarded on February 21 to the Five Nations Clam Company.
Ms. Blewett, as long as you can recall, is this the first time that a fishing contract was awarded to a company without any fishing vessels?
Deputy Minister, Department of Fisheries and Oceans
Thank you for the question. The department doesn't have information about the specifics of that at the moment. We've not received that information. The department is continuing to go through the process.
Conservative
Gérard Deltell Conservative Louis-Saint-Laurent, QC
How is it, then, that the department awarded a fishing contract to a company without any fishing vessels, when it did not know whether the company had any?
Deputy Minister, Department of Fisheries and Oceans
We have not actually yet given a licence to any of the...for the fourth licence. That has not occurred yet.
Conservative
Gérard Deltell Conservative Louis-Saint-Laurent, QC
Madam Chair, although the deputy minister doesn't know whether a contract was awarded, we do know that Minister LeBlanc held a big press conference on February 21, proudly proclaiming that this was a step towards reconciliation with first nations. Newfoundland and Labrador's fisheries minister, however, said it was anything but because it pitted first nations communities against one another.
That said, I will ask my question again. How is it that the department awarded a contract to a fishing company that had no fishing vessels? You're telling us that you didn't know whether it had any vessels or not. How is that possible?
Deputy Minister, Department of Fisheries and Oceans
Thank you for the question.
We went through an “expression of interest” process and we're continuing to work with the proponent that was chosen, but a licence has not yet been given, and we're working through the process—
Conservative
Gérard Deltell Conservative Louis-Saint-Laurent, QC
You did not say only that the department was working on the process for awarding the contract. That said, the Ethics Commissioner is investigating the minister's decision, but that's another matter.
How could the minister approve—and announce with great fanfare on February 21—an agreement with Five Nations Clam Company, when you just told me that the licence has not been issued yet and you do not know whether the company, which will be responsible for fishing, has any fishing vessels?
Deputy Minister, Department of Fisheries and Oceans
We, through the department, were able to provide the minister with options, looking at the benefits potentially coming to reallocating this fishery. We gave seven options to the minister to take a look at and to make a selection through the—
Conservative
Gérard Deltell Conservative Louis-Saint-Laurent, QC
So the minister picked out the best for his own interests—
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Bernadette Jordan
Thank you, Mr. Deltell.
Thank you, Ms. Blewett.
That's your time.
We're going now to Mr. McDonald, please, for five minutes.
Liberal
Ken McDonald Liberal Avalon, NL
Thank you, Madam Chair.
I first want to comment on the question from my colleague, Mr. Doherty, on the department ensuring the full value of any fishery. Many people hold quotas, whether they be an IQ, a trip limit, daily, or weekly. The department doesn't dictate whether that full quota is ever caught. That's up to the individual quota owner. They make a business decision to either fish it or not, so I don't think it's the department's role to guarantee that any quota be fully harvested for any value.
On the Arctic surf clam issue, I have one question to the department, I guess. Does the department believe the minister made the right decision on the allocation of this quota?
Deputy Minister, Department of Fisheries and Oceans
We looked at the proposals that came in. Again, we received nine. Two were clearly ineligible. They just did not meet the bar. The remaining were assessed against criteria: again, direct significant benefits to indigenous communities; contribution to conservation was an important consideration for us; the ability to process and market; and, looking at the feasibility of it. We gave options and we assessed each of the proposals against those criteria. Under the Fisheries Act, the ministerial authority to make that decision is exactly appropriate, so we provided that to the minister for his decision.
Liberal
Ken McDonald Liberal Avalon, NL
Thank you.
You mentioned earlier in some testimony that DFO science is partnering with Norway in looking at oil spill cleanup and how they do things. That kind of perked a little bit of interest for me to partner with Norway.
Have we considered doing the same thing with regard to the seal population? Norway had a problem with seals, and they resolved it. When we ask about seals here at committee, the comments we get from the department are that there's no scientific proof that the seals are detrimental to any of our fish stocks. They're eating fish. There's a study the department did a while back that says how many pounds of fish they eat every day, yet they don't damage the capelin stock, they don't damage the salmon stock, and they don't damage the northern cod stock.
Would the department look at partnering with Norway to see what they did to solve the seal problem?
Deputy Minister, Department of Fisheries and Oceans
Thank you very much for the question. We're very happy to speak with them.
One of the things we're trying to make sure we do is to bring our best possible advice on any topic. Where there are international experts or opportunities to maximize our understanding and benefit, we'll be happy to follow up.