Fisheries Committee on Nov. 23rd, 2016

[Todd Doherty, Conservative, Cariboo—Prince George, BC]

This is a point of order.

[The Chair, Liberal, Scott Simms]

Are you sure?

[Todd Doherty, Conservative, Cariboo—Prince George, BC]

It is.

I move that we strike the testimony of Mr. Langer as we believe he has contributed to Mr. Donnelly. It could be seen as being partisan and politically motivated.

[The Chair, Liberal, Scott Simms]

Mr. Doherty, I'm afraid you cannot move that on point of order. I don't think that's pertinent to the business at hand. This is testimony that we've agreed on earlier, and we go through a process to do this.

[Todd Doherty, Conservative, Cariboo—Prince George, BC]

He has contributed to both the NDP and the—

[The Chair, Liberal, Scott Simms]

I appreciate that, Mr. Doherty, but is there a particular point to this point of order that pertains to the Standing Orders?

[Todd Doherty, Conservative, Cariboo—Prince George, BC]

Absolutely. We talked about ours being a science-based study, not politically motivated, not partisan.

[The Chair, Liberal, Scott Simms]

Right, but where in the Standing Orders does it talk about that? That's my point.

I have to rule out your point of order, sir.

It doesn't pertain to being a point of order. You can bring it up in debate. You can bring it up with the witnesses at the next testimony if you wish to do so.

[Todd Doherty, Conservative, Cariboo—Prince George, BC]

Okay.

[The Chair, Liberal, Scott Simms]

I just want you to understand that.

[Todd Doherty, Conservative, Cariboo—Prince George, BC]

Thanks, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Scott Simms]

Thank you.

Sorry, Mr. Donnelly, do you have a point of order?

[Fin Donnelly, NDP, Port Moody—Coquitlam, BC]

No, I was just following up. You had mentioned on the break that I was to—

[The Chair, Liberal, Scott Simms]

Yes, you can do that. Go right ahead. You can bring it up to the clerk if you wish, whenever you wish.

You can do it now if you want.

[Fin Donnelly, NDP, Port Moody—Coquitlam, BC]

Okay. Thank you—

[The Chair, Liberal, Scott Simms]

No. Sorry, Mr. Donnelly, physically bring it up to the clerk if you so desire.

[Fin Donnelly, NDP, Port Moody—Coquitlam, BC]

Are you going to hold on?

[The Chair, Liberal, Scott Simms]

Yes, I'd like to get on with this meeting. That's the issue.

[Fin Donnelly, NDP, Port Moody—Coquitlam, BC]

You're just going to hold on, though. Right?

[The Chair, Liberal, Scott Simms]

Yes, just give it to the clerk.

We're here for the next little while, about 50 minutes or so, on the supplementary estimates (B). I want to thank our witnesses for coming.

From the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, we have Tony Matson, assistant deputy minister and chief financial officer; Kevin Stringer, associate deputy minister; Jody Thomas, of course, who is the commissioner of the Canadian Coast Guard; and Mario Pelletier, deputy commissioner of operations, also coming to us from the Canadian Coast Guard.

You have 10 minutes to start. Will one person be doing the presentation?

Mr. Stringer.

[Kevin Stringer, Associate Deputy Minister, Department of Fisheries and Oceans]

Tony Matson will be making the presentation, but I'd just like to say how pleased we are to be here to give this presentation and to answer your questions on supplementary estimates (B). As you know, the minister was here last week with the deputy minister. They aren't available today, but senior department officials are in attendance.

Tony Matson, our chief financial officer, will do a very short five-minute presentation on the supplementary estimates (B).

Thank you very much.

[Tony Matson, Assistant Deputy Minister and Chief Financial Officer, Department of Fisheries and Oceans]

Thank you, deputy and Mr. Chair. Hello, bonjour, committee members.

My name is Tony Matson, and I am the chief financial officer for the Department of Fisheries and Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard. We are delighted to appear before you this afternoon to provide an overview of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans' supplementary estimates (B) for 2016-17.

I am pleased to be here today with the associate deputy minister of fisheries and oceans, and the commissioner and deputy commissioner of the Canadian Coast Guard. I have prepared very brief remarks. This should allow plenty of time to go through any questions that the committee may have.

Before I provide a quick synopsis of the financials, I would just offer a simple reference that we are currently in the midst of the second supply period. Section 26 of the Financial Administration Act requires all spending to be approved by Parliament. Supply bills are referred to the committee, where the contents are studied before voting actually takes place, hence our presence here today.

In these estimates we are seeking Parliament's approval for a total of $26.5 million. This would bring our approved authorities to date to $2.607 billion, as $2.581 billion had previously been approved by Parliament through the main estimates, supplementary estimates (A), and transfers from central votes to our carry forwards from last year.

The funding summary is presented on page 2-31 of the supplementary estimates publication,

or page 2-70 of the French version.

To summarize, we are seeking $19.9 million in operating expenditures, $1.6 million in capital expenditures, and $5 million in grants and contributions.

Budget 2016 provided funding over five years starting in 2016-17 to Fisheries and Oceans Canada and Natural Resources Canada to support maritime conservation activities, including the designation of new marine protected areas under the Oceans Act.

We are seeking $11.8 million in these supplementary estimates toward achieving our target of protecting 5% of Canada's marine and coastal areas by 2017, and 10% by 2020. This commitment is clearly reflected in the mandate letter of Minister LeBlanc.

Budget 2016 also provided funding over five years starting in 2016-17 to seven federal departments and agencies to adapt to climate change impacts by implementing programming focusing on building the science base to inform decision-making, protecting the health and well-being of Canadians, building resilience in the north and indigenous communities, and enhancing competitiveness in key economic sectors.

We are seeking $2.6 million in these supplementary estimates to continue the work to assess the risks for the department caused by climate change in Canada's three oceans and major inland waterways, to fund research to understand the impacts of climate change, and to apply the science to facilitate departmental adaptation to climate change.

We are also seeking $3.4 million for the government's review of the Fisheries Act and early action to strengthen monitoring. The outcome of this initiative is to provide Canadians the opportunity to participate in the review of the changes to the Fisheries Act and to support the restoration of lost protections and incorporation of modern safeguards.

For the Canadian Coast Guard, we are seeking $1.7 million in funding to strengthen marine incident prevention, preparedness, and response in waters south of the 60th parallel. An additional $1.5 million is being sought for the procurement of two new survey and sounding vessels.

The remaining items listed on page 2-31 of the supplementary estimates,

or page 2-70 of the French version

are largely technical and routine in nature. This includes accessing royalties from intellectual property, or the re-profiling of funding to align financial resources to updated project timelines, or to match recipient requirements in the case of grants and contributions.

As well, we are seeking a relatively modest number of internal vote transfers that are net neutral to the overall departmental financial base. This is a clear example of sound resource management stewardship, where we are seeking your approval to use existing reference levels to meet our program demands by placing the funds into the right bucket.

As an example, the department is transferring $600,000 from its operating vote to its grants and contributions vote to support the Anqotum resource management program to develop a restoration project for Little Southwest Miramichi River, New Brunswick. This will create a habitat bank to offset possible damage incurred by small craft harbours projects that may harm commercial, recreational, or aboriginal fisheries.

We also have a small number of transfers to and from other government departments that are also net neutral to the overall government financial framework. These are listed on page 2-32 of the publication,

or page 2-71 of the French version.

I am confident that if there are any questions, we can get to them.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for allowing me to complement Mr. Stringer's opening remarks on our supplementary estimates for this year. My colleagues and I would be happy to entertain any questions you may have.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Scott Simms]

Thank you very much.

We're going to start the questions with Mr. McDonald for seven minutes.

[Ken McDonald, Liberal, Avalon, NL]

I'm going to share my time with the other Ken on the committee, so it's going to be Ken squared—

[The Chair, Liberal, Scott Simms]

Okay, we'll start with Ken and end up with squared. That's very good. Carry on.