Fisheries Committee on Nov. 29th, 2018

[The Chair]

Your time is up and we are back to the Conservative side with Mr. Arnold for five minutes or less, please.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Earlier in your presentation you described how some provinces have taken on the management of aquaculture. In other areas of the country it's still under federal jurisdiction. Can you explain why there are differences? Do your agencies still have overarching authority over those provinces that have taken on that management?

[Philippe Morel]

Aquaculture is a joint jurisdiction, but the B.C. Supreme Court decision in 2010 said that aquaculture is fisheries, so it's managed under the Fisheries Act. Because it's the B.C. Supreme Court, that decision does not have any impact on other provinces where the previous jurisdiction split exists. Before that, aquaculture in B.C. was managed the same way as in other provinces.

The only difference is in P.E.I., where we have an agreement with the Province of P.E.I. to co-manage aquaculture in the province. In all other provinces, it's a shared jurisdiction. We only have partial jurisdiction, mainly on the transfer of fish from the hatchery to the pens.

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

So you're saying that a provincial court decision has been made but that there was no federal opposition, or—

[Philippe Morel]

There was no appeal of the decision, so the decision didn't go to the B.C. Court of Appeal, and it didn't go to the Supreme Court, so it has no legislative impact on other provinces.

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

Thank you.

Do your agencies work closely with the Province of B.C.'s animal health centre? I believe it's in Surrey or in the Abbotsford area.

[Andrew Thomson]

It's in Abbotsford.

[Philippe Morel]

I think Mr. Thomson probably has more detail than I do on that.

[Andrew Thomson]

Yes, we do have a collaborative arrangement with the B.C. animal health centre in Abbotsford, which is a certified lab for disease analysis. We actually have a contract in place in which that lab performs pathology analysis on samples that we collect under our regulatory program.

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

Thank you.

Recently, aquaculture companies have started using alternative methods of managing sea lice and so on. How effective are these new methods? Have you been able to monitor that? Are they an improvement?

[Wayne Moore]

Thank you very much to the member for the question, via you, Mr. Chair.

Certainly, there's a growing interest in alternative technologies in terms of this. We've been doing a lot of research in this area, and there are a number of them that are looking promising, such as using fish that will actually eat sea lice—very strange—as well as the washes that were referred to in the media earlier this month, I think, using warm water. Our research has shown that these are promising. I think we'll need to look at more active monitoring in situ over time, to see how well they are paying off.

The only point I would add to that is that ultimately, as in the area of agriculture—and I think those members not from the coast will know this—it takes a broad and fully integrated approach to pest management, not just a single tool. I think these alternative technologies are useful tools in the tool kit.

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

Thank you.

In the commissioner's audit, there was mention of a “'traffic light' decision tree” as a tool to help address the potential cumulative effects on wild fish. How far along is the development of that process?

[Philippe Morel]

We are finalizing the development of that. The traffic light is to identify sites. When it's red, deposits should no longer be allowed. When it's green, it's authorized. When it's yellow, we should be more careful.

Now we are consulting with partners and stakeholders on that, with provinces, to see about our approach. We should be finalizing this process within the next six to eight months, I'm told, and implementing it on all coasts.

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

So it's well under way.

[Philippe Morel]

Yes, it's well under way, and we will be on track, as mentioned in the commissioner's report.

[The Chair]

Thank you, Mr. Arnold.

We'll now go to the government side and Mr. Finnigan, for five minutes or less, please.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you to the group for being here today to answer some questions.

I might be going a little bit outside the real study, but it's still pertinent to what we're doing here.

I'm the chair of the ag committee, and roughly two years ago, we looked at the first time that GMO salmon was going to be farmed. I guess it was just the production of the eggs. I believe this was on Prince Edward Island, to be shipped to Panama. From there, it would be farmed and then shipped back to Canada as a product.

I haven't heard anything back. Could you let us know how that project is working and whether there's any plan of expanding it? In other words, is there any plan for some of the aquaculture to be used for GMO salmon? Could you expand on that?

[Wayne Moore]

Thank you very much for the question.

As you correctly pointed out, there was a proposal, which was approved by the Minister of Environment and Climate Change, to allow for the production of eggs on the west coast—

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

Is it on the west coast or on the east coast?

[Wayne Moore]

Oh, sorry, it's on the east coast, in Prince Edward Island.

Well, I'm a Newfoundlander, so it's west of me.

[Voices]

Oh, oh!

[Bobby Morrissey, Liberal, Egmont, PE]

Pretty sharp. That's a fair point.

[Wayne Moore]

Having said that—

[Blaine Calkins]

That was my reaction when Saskatchewan played Winnipeg in the Grey Cup. It was just a bunch of easterners.

[Voices]

Oh, oh!