Absolutely. It's a recommendation for two separate provisions. This approach actually exists in some other legislation in Canada. There are parallel provisions, or similar provisions, in the Canadian Environmental Protection Act. Essentially, the request for investigation simply gives those who are out there on the ground a place to report to when they think the Fisheries Act is clearly being violated—or the habitat provision, in this case—and that creates a requirement to respond.
Something you see consistently in reports about the challenges that DFO has with enforcing the act in general, and habitat protection in particular, is just a general lack of response. Within the last year or two, since the budget cuts, our office has been getting a lot of calls about this from people who are frustrated. They say they phone and report things or ask questions, and they never get a call back or anything. We don't really know how to help them, because there is no mechanism under the act for anyone to complain or request that someone investigate. That's the request for investigation provision. I think it's in section 19 of CEPA, and that will be in our written brief, or you could look at the language of a provision.
On citizen enforcement, in the United States, citizen enforcement provisions are called “citizen suit provisions”. They also exist in legislation in Australia, and there's actually one under CEPA. It's a provision that allows people acting in good faith to take prosecutorial action, something that actually is envisioned under the Fisheries Act, in theory. In fisheries general regulations, there's a fine-splitting provision that clearly suggests that an individual can stand in the shoes of the Attorney General and prosecute. It's the kind of provision that essentially allows citizen groups or individuals to enforce the act if the government is not willing to do so.
If you look at some of the information we have, you'll see that we have the report to Parliament from 2014-15 that says there are no charges being laid under the act. Even when you look at where authorizations are being given or investigations are happening—and I believe some of this was presented to the committee in an earlier brief—there's a real regional disparity about where there are people on the ground now. I'm not from Vancouver. I live in a small coastal community in British Columbia called Pender Island. Truly, I've never seen a fisheries officer there, ever. There's a real challenge. It's a huge country, and we've cut back so significantly that when we see enforcement action here, there's a huge regional disparity. We need a mechanism that will allow for people on the ground and in the water to take action, especially when there's nobody there.
