Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Like the minister, I am going to take a few seconds to thank you for your work as chair of this committee. My thanks also go to all members of the committee for their excellent work. I love working with you and I am pleased to appear before you today.
As a Maritimer, and the son of a fisherman, I have strong ties to the ocean. I know from first-hand experience just how important our fisheries are from an economic, social and cultural perspective.
Today's appearance gives us an opportunity to talk about how our government is honouring the commitment we made to Canadians to review changes made to the Fisheries Act.
The Fisheries Act is one of Canada's oldest pieces of federal legislation dating back to the Confederation. It gained royal assent in 1868 and became an essential tool in the government's ability to sustainably manage our fisheries and protect the habitat that supports them.
Over the years, the act has been amended many times in order to keep up with modern realities. However, the most recent changes made in 2012-13 generated some serious questions about whether Canada is doing all it can to protect one of our more precious resources.
This shows the importance of your committee's decision to help determine if any of the fish and fish habitat protections that were lost during the latest amendment to the act should be restored.
We would also like to take this opportunity to explore legislative ways in which we can incorporate new and modern safeguards that will further strengthen fish and fish habitat protections.
Although the consultation process is still underway, over 5,500 Canadians have already participated in the online consultations. We are seeing a high level of participation, both through the surveys completed online, and the ideas shared through the online forum about modern safeguards.
So what are people telling us so far? As we expected, a good number of the opinions expressed deal with the state of fish and fish habitat, and with concerns about cumulative effects. As just one example, a respondent suggested prohibiting access to some areas in order to protect essential fish habitat. Another suggested focusing on the problem of culverts that have been poorly designed and installed, thereby reducing habitat for Atlantic salmon and several species of freshwater fish. The person who brought that matter to our attention proposed that the department should set up a partnership with provincial governments with a view to correcting some of the problems.
The theme of monitoring and enforcement also prompted a number of ideas and comments, such as delegating monitoring and enforcement to indigenous guardians; requiring greater catch data on all fish landings, including recreational, commercial, treaty, and more; and the need to hire more fishery officers. Not unexpectedly, Canadians are asking us to take a closer look at management practices and improve them, provide more data and information, and ensure it is available in a user-friendly format.
One such idea calls for an app that will help individuals and companies to locate their projects in areas that will have a lower impact on fish and habitat right from the start. This app will gather specific habitat information from provinces, municipalities, conservation groups, universities, the federal government, and industry, and will be combined into a national, online, publicly accessible fish habitat map.
Others have merely highlighted the importance of, where feasible, the need to modernize the government's fish counting tool in order to improve the efficiency of fish population surveys.
Once the online consultation period ends, we will happily share the feedback we have received with your committee, should you believe it to be of value to your study. We can also provide feedback that we have heard during consultations with the provinces, territories, indigenous groups, and other stakeholders.
From my perspective, Canada's wild fisheries and pristine waters are the envy of the world. By engaging in genuine and meaningful consultation with Canadians, I am confident that we will be able to chart an appropriate and responsible path forward when it comes to safeguarding Canada's aquatic ecosystems.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.