Very quickly, Mr. Sullivan. Go ahead.
Evidence of meeting #23 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 fishery.
Evidence of meeting #23 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 fishery.
11:45 a.m.
President, Fish, Food and Allied Workers
Absolutely, and I'd be happy to explore what that would look like. We're thinking that for school-aged children, for example, more focus at younger ages is important, because for many years, particularly for people who lived through the moratorium, there was something of an idea that you should stay away from that. There are bad feelings associated with it now, but I believe there is potential, so that's fair.
11:50 a.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Scott Simms
Thank you for that. I appreciate it.
Folks, that concludes this round. We've approached the lunch break. At one o'clock, we will reconvene with our next group of witnesses.
I want to thank the three in front of us from the processing side: Mr. Wareham, Mr. Butler, and, from the FFAW, Mr. Sullivan. Thank you very much, gentlemen, for your contributions.
Mr. Doherty.
11:50 a.m.
Conservative
Todd Doherty Conservative Cariboo—Prince George, BC
Mr. Chair, if it's possible, for speaking points for the remainder of the day, can we put a motion on the table to support the photocopying of any of those that are in English?
11:50 a.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Scott Simms
Whenever comments or a speech is handed in beforehand, you'd like to have it distributed, regardless of whether it's....
Can I have unanimous consent that for the remainder of the panels? If one of the submissions is in one language only, can we do that?
11:50 a.m.
Some hon. members
Agreed.
11:50 a.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Scott Simms
There are no objections.
Robert, the logistics officer, has been back and forth to the photocopier all day. He will continue to do so. By the end of this day, he'll be the same height as me, I think, but nevertheless....
We'll break for lunch now and will be back here at one o'clock. Thank you very much.
1:05 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Scott Simms
Okay, folks, let's start again this afternoon. Once again, we're embarking on a study of northern cod and the relevant facts thereon.
We have our next group of witnesses. This will be the third part of the day.
Just as a reminder to everyone watching from the gallery, we are here today, we are in Port De Grave tomorrow, and we will be on beautiful Fogo Island on Wednesday. I call it “beautiful” because I'm biased; it's in my riding. What can you say? Even with my colleagues from British Columbia here, I can confidently say that.
Before we get to the witnesses, there is a quick point that I thought I'd discuss with us here, and of course publicly. Derek Butler, the president of the Association of Seafood Processors, suggested that we should visit Iceland and Norway. I don't think we have the budget for that, but we are currently doing some work here to see whether we could have someone from Iceland and/or Norway be part of this study and talk about their fishery.
Can I get a consensus here that we should go ahead and do that? I know we're not the full committee, but...
Mr. Doherty?
1:05 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Scott Simms
You agree? All right.
Are there any comments? Are we okay with that?
Mr. Arnold.
1:05 p.m.
Conservative
Mel Arnold Conservative North Okanagan—Shuswap, BC
I'm just wondering whether we are going to have some discussion over who it should be, and whether it would be government scientists, harvesters, or processors. How far do we go with it? One person who can represent all? I'd like to hear some discussion..
1:05 p.m.
Conservative
Todd Doherty Conservative Cariboo—Prince George, BC
We've heard witness after witness talk about what's been taking place in Iceland and Norway. I think that if we're truly going to get this right this time and really have some action behind it, this is something we need probably to discuss further, in camera, and with the whole committee, to debate how we best move forward.
1:05 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Scott Simms
As a neutral chair I shouldn't say this, but I wholeheartedly agree with what you're saying.
Mr. Arnold.
1:05 p.m.
Conservative
Mel Arnold Conservative North Okanagan—Shuswap, BC
If we're going to have those discussions, we should maybe consider looking at what's been done in other parts of Europe as well. We've heard of Norway, Sweden, and the changes that were made there and whatever they did to get their fishery open much sooner. There are obviously some success stories there. As someone said earlier today, we don't need to reinvent the process.
1:05 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Scott Simms
Yes, as a matter of fact, Thai has already delved into some possibilities. We can discuss them at a later date. I know we have witnesses here.
Mr. Johns.
1:05 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Scott Simms
It's not a motion. I'm sorry, I was just looking for a consensus so that we can find some people from Iceland and Norway to be a part of the study.
1:05 p.m.
NDP
Gord Johns NDP Courtenay—Alberni, BC
I think it would be also beneficial to have someone from Massachusetts and Maine, because we're hearing a lot about some of that. I think Mr. Cobb will talk a little about the value proposition piece, because he did at the oceans caucus in Ottawa. I think that would be of importance.
1:05 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Scott Simms
He's talking about the oceans caucus. Mr. Johns was there when you presented there. We have an oceans caucus in Ottawa, everybody, and Fin Donnelly and I are chairs. Mr. Cobb was there as well, which I'll get to in just a moment. That being said, we'll work on that. Will it be Iceland, Norway, and Massachusetts and the northeastern U.S. as well?
Okay. That's great.
Thai in his infinite wisdom has just mentioned something. Maine and Massachusetts do not have northern cod. That's a different species altogether.
1:10 p.m.
NDP
Gord Johns NDP Courtenay—Alberni, BC
I want to bring that up. It does come into play, because it's about getting fish to plate and it's about the value they've created there. It's an important piece to the northern cod, because we heard from witnesses throughout the morning about making sure we get as high a value as we can for each piece of fish, and they have a sustainable model that could be applied here on northern cod. I think there's some relevance to it.
1:10 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Scott Simms
That is noted. Thank you, sir.
Let's get to our witnesses.
Mr. Doyle, you have comments forwarded to us to be distributed, so I don't have to go through the rigmarole of whatever is being distributed in English only. We have consent as of our motion prior to this.
Mr. Doyle, you're a harvester. Thank you for being here.
We also have, from the Shorefast Foundation—he's a board member, but he's also president of Fogo Island Fish—Anthony Cobb, or as we know him, Tony Cobb.
Tony's fish, by the way, or Fogo Island fish—I won't say it's your fish, Tony—is featured in the parliamentary restaurant, just so you know. That's a little plug that I threw in as the MP.
We also have Kimberly Orren with us. She's a project manager from Fishing for Success, out of Petty Harbour. Petty Harbour is literally just around the corner from here.