We had some very interesting testimony from Mr. Ron Bonnett, who's president of the Canadian Federation of Agriculture, Canada's largest farm group, regarding the Fisheries Act. I'm going to quote his testimony. He said, regarding the Fisheries Act in its previous form, “The experience that many farmers had with the Fisheries Act, unfortunately, was not a positive one. It was characterized by lengthy bureaucratic applications for permitting and authorizations, and a focus on enforcement and compliance measures taken by officials coupled with the lack of guidance or outreach on the purpose of these measures, or information on how to navigate through the process. Many farmers were then relieved when the changes that were made just a few years ago drastically improved the timeliness and cost of conducting regular maintenance and improvement [facilities] to their farms as well as lifting the threat of being deemed out of compliance.”
Mr. Bonnett went on to say, “There are also many accounts of inconsistency in enforcement, monitoring, and compliance across Canada with different empowered organizations which led to a confusion and indiscriminate approaches to enforcement and implementation. Even at the individual level, there were different interpretations of the act based on one's familiarity with agriculture.”
Mr. Bonnett went on to say, “It is CFA's position that a complete revert to reinstate all provisions of the Fisheries Act as they were would be unproductive and re-establish the same problems for farmers and provide little improvement in [the] outcome for the protection and improvement of fish habitat. The current streamlined approach is working far better for all and efforts should continue this approach.”
Why was the agricultural community's experience, in terms of interactions with your department, so dismal before the changes were made to the Fisheries Act?