Fisheries Committee on March 8th, 2016

[Ken Hardie, Liberal, Fleetwood—Port Kells, BC]

You haven't seen the first one yet but you're confident the other two will be built in time?

[Jeffery Hutchinson]

The first one is well under way. The construction on the second one will start shortly. They will be building the ships in parallel. They don't have to work one at a time.

There are some interim milestones that we're paying attention to. I wouldn't say they're hitting all of them, but we're in discussion with the shipyard about the delivery of all three vessels by December 2017, which is their contractual commitment, and whether there will be any slippage on that. I don't have a conclusive answer for you today. The yard is working to keep those three ships on schedule.

[Ken Hardie, Liberal, Fleetwood—Port Kells, BC]

I want to turn your attention now to the work going on in the Salish Sea. The Cohen commission, obviously, is going to be a focus, particularly for me as the member from British Columbia on this side of the committee. Does the Salish Sea itself include the Broughton Archipelago?

[Trevor Swerdfager]

It does.

[Ken Hardie, Liberal, Fleetwood—Port Kells, BC]

In addition to the work with the Pacific Salmon Foundation, can you talk about any other departmental allocations that are going into research that will at least help us understand the recommendations of the Cohen commission and resolve some of the issues it raised?

[Trevor Swerdfager]

There are a number of areas where our research is targeting that broad geographic area that some people call the Salish Sea. You can use whatever geographic boundary you like.

Essentially, I would describe it as a focal point of our science program that tends to fall in three main streams.

One is around fish, fish stocks, and fish health itself. As I said earlier, we are trying to understand what is happening to these animals. What is happening when they are in their natal streams? Where do they go? All those sorts of things. What is affecting their health? This is the fish stock work. There is a fair bit of work being done, not only but primarily, on salmon, all elements of the salmon stocks. We do a fair bit of pelagic work there. In that whole geographic area, we are also looking a fair bit at shellfish, for a variety of reasons. I could talk about some of the content of that.

The second area of inquiry is more about the environment in which the fish are swimming, living. One of my colleagues earlier mentioned the oceanographic program. A big part of what we are trying to do is to understand or improve our understanding of the physical conditions in which these animals are living. Is temperature changing? Is pH changing? Is salinity changing? If so, so what? How do all these interact?

The third chunk of our work, which focuses a bit more on the Broughton but also throughout the west coast, is to try to take all of that, put it together, and model what we think will happen if certain disturbances or changes occur. There is a fairly substantive modelling element.

[The Chair, Liberal, Scott Simms]

Thank you.

Now in our five-minute rounds, we are going to start with Mr. Sopuck.

[Robert Sopuck, Conservative, Dauphin—Swan River—Neepawa, MB]

In a briefing note that was described in an article on February 24, a briefing note that your department wrote to the minister, there was a quote from somebody who wrote, “As minister, you are well-positioned to attest to how Canada’s fisheries are managed in an effective, science-based and sustainable manner”.

This is a rhetorical question, obviously, but since this appeared in the briefing note, I assume you stand by that statement, that Canada's fisheries, going back a decade or so, have clearly been managed in a science-based and sustainable manner. Given that I don't have much time, if you could, keep all the answers brief.

[Kevin Stringer]

Yes.

[Robert Sopuck, Conservative, Dauphin—Swan River—Neepawa, MB]

Okay. That's pretty brief.

In terms of the sockeye, for example, in the last five or eight years, when were the two largest sockeye salmon runs in the Fraser, which two years?

[Kevin Stringer]

I think 2010 was the big year, and 2014. I believe those were the two really significant years.

[Robert Sopuck, Conservative, Dauphin—Swan River—Neepawa, MB]

Interestingly, the Cohen commission's report ended in 2009, and shortly after that we had the two largest sockeye salmon runs in history. It is very clear that the system overall is capable of producing large numbers of fish. Is that correct? Is that a fair statement?

[Kevin Stringer]

Certainly, the system is capable of producing large overall numbers of fish. Those years, 2010 and 2014, were significant years. It is a four-year cycle, and the years four years before those were positive as well.

[Robert Sopuck, Conservative, Dauphin—Swan River—Neepawa, MB]

There is no denying that there were some years before that when the sockeye run was extremely low.

Many people have criticized our changes to the Fisheries Act, but in spite of the changes we as a government made to the Fisheries Act, those two massive sockeye salmon runs occurred. In terms of the statement that I read from the briefing note, in spite of the changes we made to the Fisheries Act, you will still attest that Canada's fisheries were managed in a science-based and sustainable manner.

[Kevin Stringer]

I would attest that is the case. Changes to the Fisheries Act may not have had a significant impact on the core fisheries management decision-making approach. I still think we have well-managed fisheries and we do follow scientific advice.

[Robert Sopuck, Conservative, Dauphin—Swan River—Neepawa, MB]

Yes. I certainly concur with that.

In terms of a program that I have a particular interest in, the recreational fisheries conservation partnerships program, perhaps Mr. Stringer or Mr. Swerdfager can describe how many projects were funded under that program and give me a quantitative estimate of the impact on fish spawning habitats and riparian habitats, if they have that.

[Kevin Stringer]

I'd be happy to do that. I can get you the specific number. I believe that upwards of 400 projects have taken place so far under that program.

We do have some specific numbers we've quoted in the past, for at least the first ones, that speak to the amount of linear kilometres or square metres of riparian habitat and fish habitat being restored. It really is a partnership program with local watershed groups, local environmental groups, and local conservation groups and angling groups that do riparian work, work on fish habitat restoration, and work on repairing fish passage and fixing up culverts and those types of things.

They're small things in the scheme of things, but when you add them up, with the 400 or so projects and the thousands of volunteers we've partnered with, this has actually made a difference.

[Robert Sopuck, Conservative, Dauphin—Swan River—Neepawa, MB]

Yes, I'm very quirky in that regard. I actually care about environmental results as opposed to environmental process.

In terms of the Atlantic salmon stocks, that's probably the most significant challenge you have as a department in terms of managing fish stocks. What do you see in the future for Atlantic salmon going forward and what do you think the next steps should be?

[Kevin Stringer]

It is a challenge. Atlantic salmon is a very complex system. We are seeing reductions at the southern range of Atlantic salmon. It's still in reasonable shape in Labrador and in northern Newfoundland. The farther south you go, the bigger the challenges. The U.S. is in really tough shape.

There was a panel, an advisory committee, that reported to the minister last July. We're looking at the results of the recommendations. The number of the recommendations was made public. We'll be looking at that. We'll be guided by that as we go forward. There will be a response to that.

We're meeting with the Atlantic Salmon Federation and with many groups that are involved in the Atlantic salmon fishery and that care about Atlantic salmon. Also, we have the Atlantic salmon advisory committee. There is also the wild Atlantic salmon policy. That requires a review, which we've been asked to do.

It is very complex. There are issues such as the Salish Sea issue. There are issues around at-sea mortality that nobody really understands. There's habitat. There is predation. There is the issue of whether you keep catch-and-release where we've been, and a number of other matters and measures that we're going to have to take a look at.

[The Chair, Liberal, Scott Simms]

Thank you.

Mr. McDonald, you have five minutes.

[Ken McDonald, Liberal, Avalon, NL]

I have a couple of questions. If I do have any time left over, Mr. Finnigan has a question he'd like to ask, so I'll ask him to do that.

[The Chair, Liberal, Scott Simms]

You're splitting your your time.

[Ken McDonald, Liberal, Avalon, NL]

I have a quick question on science. Since 2009-10, the department's core annual science budget has been reduced by some $39.5 million to $211 million. Is it your hope going forward that you can replenish that fund and increase the amount of science actually being done?

[Trevor Swerdfager]

Like my colleague said earlier, I would say yes.

You're quite right. There has been a diminishment in the program. I think it's possible that there will be further investments in the science program in the department, and obviously those would be welcome.

[Ken McDonald, Liberal, Avalon, NL]

I have another question. On January 28, 2016, the federal government announced a contribution agreement worth $150,000 with the Government of Nunavut under the federal certification and market access program for seals. Is that federal contribution of $150,000 part of the $474,000 in appropriations for DFO to establish a certification and market access program for seal products?