Can you describe...?
Evidence of meeting #129 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 quota.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Evidence of meeting #129 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 quota.
A recording is available from Parliament.
5:20 p.m.
Executive Manager, Pacific Halibut Management Association, BC Seafood Alliance
Sure. Our organization was formed in 1997. It's a provincially registered society. It was formed initially so that we would go into co-managed arrangements with DFO.
We engage in science activities with DFO. We work collaboratively on a rockfish survey program, even though we're the halibut fishery. We catch inshore rockfish during our fishery. There was a lack of science there. We were concerned about what it would mean for our fishery, so we fund a survey program designed by DFO, and we implement it every year. We work collaboratively. That's why we were formed. The industry funds us, and we do that.
As the sort of umbrella group for the industry, we also engage in the broad issues, the bigger issues.
5:20 p.m.
Liberal
Bobby Morrissey Liberal Egmont, PE
I didn't get an answer where you identified a particular fisher on the water.
5:20 p.m.
Executive Manager, Pacific Halibut Management Association, BC Seafood Alliance
Do you want the names of some fishers?
5:20 p.m.
Executive Manager, Pacific Halibut Management Association, BC Seafood Alliance
Commercial halibut fishermen are members of our association.
5:20 p.m.
Executive Manager, Pacific Halibut Management Association, BC Seafood Alliance
Yes.
5:20 p.m.
Executive Manager, Pacific Halibut Management Association, BC Seafood Alliance
Our membership is diverse. We have members who own their own boats and who fish. They fish their own quotas. They lease some quota. We have some who probably lease more quota than they fish. We also have first nations members, first nations entities and first nations individuals.
5:20 p.m.
Liberal
Bobby Morrissey Liberal Egmont, PE
I have a second question, just one final one, Mr. Chair.
Ms. Burridge, you made the statement, “We have chosen to protect weak stock.”
5:20 p.m.
Executive Director, BC Seafood Alliance
I did make that statement because it's true.
5:20 p.m.
Liberal
Bobby Morrissey Liberal Egmont, PE
You raised it in the context, as I interpreted it, of putting Canada at a disadvantage to Alaska.
5:20 p.m.
Executive Director, BC Seafood Alliance
It is a different way of managing fisheries.
We have decided that we want to put more fish upriver because we have some weak salmon populations. We also want to put more fish upriver for first nations food, social, ceremonial and economic access.
If you do that, the corollary is that you have far less open ocean fishing, so the days, let's say, of 500 trollers in Dan's community of Ucluelet are not going to come back because we've moved the model of what we do. We catch fish upriver now rather than in the open ocean.
5:20 p.m.
Conservative
Mel Arnold Conservative North Okanagan—Shuswap, BC
Thank you.
Chris Sporer, I saw you were putting up your hand to answer that. I'll give you a couple of seconds of my time.
5:20 p.m.
Executive Manager, Pacific Halibut Management Association, BC Seafood Alliance
I wanted to say that we also do that in the groundfish fisheries, where we manage our fisheries by individual quota. We transfer quotas around from fleet to fleet, boat to boat, to cover not just the directed species but also the bycatch species. A bycatch species could choke out a directed fishery if that quota is reached.
5:20 p.m.
Conservative
Mel Arnold Conservative North Okanagan—Shuswap, BC
Thanks.
This one is for the BC Seafood Alliance and Canfisco.
Can the processing sector continue to be competitive under the current system?
5:20 p.m.
Executive Director, BC Seafood Alliance
I think you should ask Phil to answer that one first.
5:20 p.m.
Vice-President, Fisheries and Corporate Affairs, Canadian Fishing Company
From our standpoint, I think we can, but it has resulted in consolidation.
Look at what we've done. We have one of the biggest plants on the west coast. It's a reasonable size by Canadian standards, but we utilize U.S. fish to do our value-added products.
Yes, we can be competitive because we have absolutely wonderful food safety regulations. They're costly, but they're accepted around the world.
5:25 p.m.
Conservative
Mel Arnold Conservative North Okanagan—Shuswap, BC
If there were changes made to the system for more owner-operator local processing and so on, would we continue to be competitive? Or would we possibly lose out to offshore processors or factory ships? Are there any predictions there?