Fisheries Committee on June 14th, 2016

[Dr. Arran McPherson]

I may have said it, or perhaps you did, but it's 17.5 in Newfoundland and Labrador.

Just to dive into a little bit more detail, the first basket of activities, as I said, focuses on ensuring that we have productive fish stocks. By that I mean ecosystem research and more frequent and comprehensive stock assessments for our key species across Canada. There will also be an investment in marine mammals, looking at more frequent and comprehensive marine mammal surveys on our three coasts, as well as a targeted investment in diadromous species and in Atlantic and Pacific salmon.

The second swath of activity is about ocean observations and making sure we know how temperature is changing and how some of our key oceanographic parameters are changing over time so that we can track and anticipate warming conditions or cooling conditions. In addition to that, we also have the work on ecosystem stressors, as I mentioned earlier.

For the third piece, of relevance in particular for the Maritimes region because it has an active aquaculture industry, there's the work Dr. Parsons has been talking about. It's more research on the impacts of wild salmon and farmed salmon interactions, as well as coastal monitoring with regard to the impacts of aquaculture in some of these areas.

That's an overview of the type of work that would be done in that area.

[Bernadette Jordan, Liberal, South Shore—St. Margarets, NS]

The next part of my question goes to that. When there were cuts to DFO in the last few years, a number of projects were shelved. Will any of those projects be brought back? I'm speaking specifically about Atlantic whitefish. I don't know if it's on the endangered list or not.

That study was being done, and there was work being done in that area. They closed the habitat and basically just walked away. This is a species very close to where I am, and I'd really like to know if there are any plans to bring back the work that was started and never finished.

[Dr. Arran McPherson]

There aren't any plans to bring back the hatchery, but what we do have is a focused program emphasis on diadromous species, which would capture Atlantic whitefish and Atlantic salmon in that area.

There aren't any plans to bring back Mersey, if that's what you're talking about, but at the same time there will be more money available for the key research priorities in that location in diadromous species, which include Atlantic whitefish.

[Bernadette Jordan, Liberal, South Shore—St. Margarets, NS]

I would also like to give one minute of my time to Mr. Eyking. I have one other question, and then we can move to Mr. Eyking.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Robert Sopuck]

That's fine. You have the floor.

[Bernadette Jordan, Liberal, South Shore—St. Margarets, NS]

My final question is about marine protected areas.

As you said, you've looked at the mandate letters to the minister. You know we have to increase the number of marine protected areas by 2020 from 1%, I believe, to 10%. It's a huge project.

[Dr. Arran McPherson]

It is.

[Bernadette Jordan, Liberal, South Shore—St. Margarets, NS]

Are any of these scientists dedicated to marine protected areas specifically, and if so, where are they?

[Dr. Arran McPherson]

Thank you for the question. In general, these researchers are going to be focused on the types of information we'll need in order to select good marine protected areas in the future. However, because we don't know exactly where those areas are going to be, at this point we can't allocate any of these new people to specific locations.

[Bernadette Jordan, Liberal, South Shore—St. Margarets, NS]

You need more people.

[Dr. Arran McPherson]

Thank you.

[Bernadette Jordan, Liberal, South Shore—St. Margarets, NS]

I'd like to give the rest of my time to Mr. Eyking.

[Mark Eyking, Liberal, Sydney—Victoria, NS]

How much time do I have, Mr. Chair?

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Robert Sopuck]

You have two minutes.

[Mark Eyking, Liberal, Sydney—Victoria, NS]

That's pretty good.

Thank you. It's great to be on this committee.

I'm from Cape Breton, and their biggest source of GDP is the fisheries in Cape Breton. We have a Veronika Brzeski. She does a lot of work with the area LFA27 MB and with the fishers. They've done work on eco-certification of lobsters under the Marine Stewardship Council. They're also looking at different uses of bait and handling of the lobsters. They're also doing some monitoring and activity around St. Ann's Bay, the new MPA dealing with halibut and other species.

They're doing a lot of work, but they were getting funding through fisher groups and also probably through ACOA. ACOA says that this is not really in its mandate and that they're doing such good work—and I think they're doing the work in conjunction with you guys, and you're using their data—that the funding should be coming from DFO.

I was pretty excited with our new budget and all this new money for research. I think it's good money spent by our federal government to have these independent groups getting the data, working with fisher groups, and bringing it together.

I know there's a lot of new research money and that it's focused on DFO employees, but is there going to be a chunk of that, or can you get a chunk of that, to get these independent groups to help you get your data and bring it to you for future analysis? It also gives the fishers in that area a sense that they're part of the solution and not part of the problem, I guess.

[Dr. Arran McPherson]

Thank you.

I'm aware of that work, and you're right; it's been really useful in terms of this work on St. Anns Bank and organizing the different members of that LFA. Absolutely, when I talked about partnerships, that's exactly what I was referring to.

There is a chunk of money identified in this $40-or-so million envelope that will focus on working with industry and working with academics. We want to work with the people we need to work with to get the type of information we need. We have a good track record of working with industry in this area as well as others across the country, and I think you are right: it does help to build confidence in the outcomes of that science when you see the work that goes into it.

Because it's in the Maritimes region and Blair is from the Maritimes, I'm going to ask if he has anything to add.

[Dr. Blair Greenan]

We've actually had a long-standing relationship on the science side with the Fishermen Scientists Research Society, and they have collected temperature data over a number of years that goes into our databases. There is an existing relationship there already, but I do agree that there are certainly opportunities for partnership with NGOs and the industry itself for collecting additional data.

There are some types of data that require the technical expertise that we have that we'll have to do ourselves. One key thing is if we're going to use data from external sources, we have to ensure that the data is of good quality. There needs to be an interaction between scientists within the department and these external partners to make sure that the data they are providing will be of good quality that we can use going forward.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Robert Sopuck]

That's time. Thank you.

[Mark Eyking, Liberal, Sydney—Victoria, NS]

Thank you, Chair.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Robert Sopuck]

Go ahead, Mr. Arnold, for five minutes.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you all for being here. It's great to get some insight on what's going to be taking place.

Ms. McPherson, could you perhaps give us a bit of a breakdown on how you see these new positions being divided up between interior habitat issues on all coasts versus the marine survival issues? I think we have differing aspects in all regions between the three oceans.

I am wondering if you have any idea of the breakdown of where these positions might be fitting in.

[Dr. Arran McPherson]

Thank you for your question.

To make sure I understand, you're interested in the breakdown of freshwater-oriented positions versus ocean-oriented positions.

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

Right.

[Dr. Arran McPherson]

Of the 135 positions, five will be oriented toward fresh water and 130 to the ocean type of research, to reflect the fact that we have $1.5-million envelope for fresh water and approximately a $40-million envelope for ocean science.

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

Okay. That's a rather significant difference.

Is that based on a belief that inland habitat is not as big an issue for river temperatures and so on? What is the basis for that split, basically?