Thank you, Mr. Chair, and through you, to our colleagues in the House of Commons.
Thank you for your invitation.
This is a special moment for me. It is my first opportunity to appear before you as Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard, and I am delighted to do so. I hope that it will not be the last time.
I'm joined by some of the most senior officials of our department. Catherine Blewett, our deputy minister, is a new deputy minister in Ottawa. She had been the clerk of the executive council, the most senior public servant in the Province of Nova Scotia, and she joined the senior ranks of the public service in June. It's certainly Nova Scotia's loss and our gain that she's joined us in the department.
Mr. Chair, you introduced Kevin Stringer, the associate deputy minister, and Philippe Morel, the senior assistant deputy minister for fisheries management and ecosystems. Obviously, all of you know my colleague from New Brunswick, our parliamentary secretary, Serge Cormier, who will, as you said, Mr. Chair, have a few brief comments after mine.
As I said, this is my first appearance before your committee. I want to begin by saying how humbled and excited I was when the Prime Minister asked me to take on the portfolio of Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard.
As you know, our oceans are facing numerous stressors, such as overfishing, habitat loss and destruction, marine pollution and warming sea temperatures. All these factors have negative impacts on our oceans and ecosystems.
If we want to protect our commercial, recreational, and indigenous fisheries for future generations, one of the most sensible places to start is to protect fish habitat, because quite simply put, without fish habitat there will be ultimately no fisheries.
Unfortunately, in my view, amendments made to the Fisheries Act in 2012 and 2013 stripped out and weakened some of the environmental protections that were specific to fish habitat. Most startlingly, the fisheries protection provisions that are currently in the act don't even reference fish habitat. I've also heard that there is some increasing uncertainty as to which bodies of water and fish species are currently in fact protected under the act.
My concern is that many of these changes were made without consulting the people who were most impacted by these changes. Indigenous and environmental groups were especially concerned with changes made to the act and perceived these amendments as a weakening of what should be a shared goal of protecting fish and fish habitat. Industry partners also became uncertain with regard to the regulatory requirements for which ultimately they would be responsible.
Our government heard these concerns and we promised to take action. In my mandate letter from the Prime Minister, I was asked to review the previous government's changes to the Fisheries Act and look at ways in which we can restore lost protections and incorporate modern safeguards.
But we did not want to do it by ourselves, without consulting those that are potentially impacted by these changes.
Instead, we want to take a holistic approach to reviewing the fishery protection provisions contained within the act. With that in mind I am very happy—and I know my colleagues in the department are—with your committee's decision to consult with Canadians on how to better protect fish and fish habitat, and in so doing to ensure the long-term sustainability of Canada's fisheries. We recognize the importance of putting in place processes to ensure a robust dialogue with provinces, territories, and obviously indigenous people.
To that end, we are working through a special task group reporting to the Canadian Council of Fisheries and Aquaculture Ministers to discuss this issue. We have also set up a number of bilateral meetings between our department's regional staff and their provincial and territorial colleagues responsible for fisheries, environment and natural resource issues to discuss provincial/territorial perspectives.
As I mentioned earlier, indigenous people have expressed serious concerns with the amendments made to this piece of legislation five or six years ago. To help encourage their participation and to benefit from their traditional ecological knowledge, my department is holding face-to-face meetings with various indigenous groups and providing funding so that they can attend these meetings and share their views on the matter.
We welcome the opinions of all Canadians, and encourage everyone to be part of this important conversation. To facilitate that, the department has launched an online public consultation. I'm sure many of you have already seen the site. It's called LetsTalkFishHabitat.ca. Here people can share their ideas about what protections are needed to ensure fish have a healthy environment in which to live, feed, and reproduce, as well as healthy corridors to migrate between such places. Should the committee find it helpful, we would obviously be very happy to share with all of you the feedback we receive through these various departmental consultations, at a time you would find appropriate.
As minister, and considering that amendments to the Fisheries Act are some of the most important responsibilities for somebody in my job, I thought that before these decisions are made we would ask Canadians to consider the following issues. What concerns do people have around the Fisheries Act changes and why? Where can we make improvements? How can we incorporate the latest science and traditional indigenous knowledge into this work? Will the amendments take into consideration future realities such as the impacts of climate change? Will additional enforcement measures and resources be required on the part of our department? Are the current penalties considered successful as the appropriate deterrence mechanism?
Mr. Chair, I look forward to the work the committee will do, to the recommendations it will formulate, to the evidence it will hear from Canadians and interested people. I think all of us benefit from having a very open and frank conversation about the ways that we can improve this important environmental and economic legislation.
That's why I want to thank all of you, and I know my colleagues from the department share that view, for having undertaken this work and to tell you that we are entirely at your disposal should you or your colleagues require any information, any briefings, any support. We're in the committee's hands as to how and when you'd like to receive regular updates on these ongoing consultations we're doing, either with the public or some of these more directed consultations with provincial governments and other groups, for example, indigenous groups.
With that, I look forward to your questions, but I know all of you look forward very much to hearing Serge Cormier's presentation. With your indulgence, Mr. Chair, I conclude my remarks.