Fisheries Committee on June 15th, 2017

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

No.

[Terry Beech, Liberal, Burnaby North—Seymour, BC]

Specifically, in Gimli, Kenora, and Selkirk, the search and rescue activities are actually looking to be expanded. I would like to turn it over to Jeff, who can go into more detail.

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

Mr. Hutchinson, can you confirm that the navigation buoys will be placed as well?

[Jeffery Hutchinson, Commissioner of the Canadian Coast Guard, Department of Fisheries and Oceans]

I can confirm all of the foregoing, that we'll keep our operations at Kenora, Selkirk, and Gimli as they are, except for the enhancements that the parliamentary secretary has already referred to with respect to search and rescue.

With respect to aids to navigation, I want to give you a comprehensive answer without giving you cause for concern. As has been noted recently in the press, we do aids to navigation in waters that are federal waterways and we do some aids in some places that are not federal waterways. We want to work with our partners in those areas. We will maintain the level of service that is there. I would say that the only change that we would see in aids to navigation is where there is a willing recipient wanting to take that on. If there is no willing recipient, we will maintain the aids to navigation that are in place.

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

Perfect.

Ms. Blewett, when you appeared before the committee previously, you mentioned that strategic management plans were in development. Are you prepared to give us an update on where those are? Can you speak to them to this point?

[Catherine Blewett, Deputy Minister, Department of Fisheries and Oceans]

Thank you very much for the question. I'm actually delighted to have a chance to give the committee more detail. As one of the processes that all departments are able to take advantage of, we have an external audit committee. I met with them last week and walked them through the elements of our strategic and operational plan.

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

Great.

[Catherine Blewett]

I actually remember questions from my last appearance. They weren't ones that required an answer from me, but they were how comfortable we were feeling, what the direction was , and how stretched we were feeling.

As to the investment results we're seeing, at the date of that appearance we were just unpacking what the budget had brought to us. Our planning is well in train. As soon as I leave here I'm going over to the Treasury Board, because we're looking at our results and we're really pleased with the work that's going on. I think the department's going to benefit from it.

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

I'm glad to hear it.

Mr. Beech, I'm going to go really quickly to the subject of MPAs. Last week, some of my colleagues and I were at the UN with our minister. This committee has heard time and again, and just prior to you joining us we had testimony again, that our current MPA process seems flawed. There is concern that true consultation is not taking place. It was alarming to hear, for me anyway and I think some of our colleagues even across the floor, that we were looking at speeding up the process to maybe even 18 months in determining an MPA.

Is this something that the department is prepared to talk further about? Are they really moving forward with an 18-month MPA process just to reach an international target?

[Terry Beech, Liberal, Burnaby North—Seymour, BC]

I appreciate the question, and thank you for joining the minister on that trip to New York for the United Nations meeting.

I'll start by putting on the record that we are on target at this point to hit our 5% by the end of the year and are dedicated to hitting our 10% target by 2020. With regard to potential changes to the Oceans Act to facilitate or to speed up MPAs, right now the average length of time to implement a marine protected area is approximately seven years. There are measures being looked at that would include some type of interim measure that would put a freeze on the footprint of activity going on there. Right now, we only get protection under marine protected areas if we have full protection.

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

Perhaps I can stop really quickly and ask you to clarify about the freeze.

[The Chair, Liberal, Scott Simms]

Mr. Doherty, we're out of time right now. I apologize.

Mr. Donnelly, you have seven minutes, please.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you to the secretary and his team of officials, the small army that's here with us.

[Terry Beech, Liberal, Burnaby North—Seymour, BC]

Feel free to utilize any of them.

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

Absolutely.

I want to start, too, with your announcement. On Friday, May 26, the government quietly announced they were cutting the Canadian Coast Guard's only search and rescue dive team, as well as phasing out the stream to sea or salmonoids in the classroom program.

Secretary, you've just stated that the Sea Island dive team and the stream to sea or salmonoids in the classroom program will continue. I think my question has been asked because this is essentially your first announcement, or the government's first announcement. Last week I asked the minister three times in question period and he did not give the same answer as you did. Is this the first time the government has publicly announced this reversal?

[Terry Beech, Liberal, Burnaby North—Seymour, BC]

Thank you, Mr. Donnelly for the question. This is not a reversal.

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

How can it not be a reversal when the government announced that it was cutting and phasing out? That's what's now confusing me, if you're not saying you're changing course and not going forward with that announcement.

[Terry Beech, Liberal, Burnaby North—Seymour, BC]

There were some notices put out as a matter of process. There were concerns raised from those notices.

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

Were the notices official?

[Terry Beech, Liberal, Burnaby North—Seymour, BC]

They were internal notices.

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

It sounds as though you're disputing that it wasn't official, that it wasn't really what was happening because you're not reversing it.

[Terry Beech, Liberal, Burnaby North—Seymour, BC]

I'm saying that we are very excited about the results of the comprehensive review. We are keeping all three programs that you mentioned intact and continuing to invest a further $1.4 billion so that we can expand on our mandate.

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

Okay, so that does sound like a reversal, which is welcome news. You're reinstating those. The communities that were impacted, like Mr. Hardie talked about, ran out chasing him in his community. I would say many MPs in British Columbia experienced the same thing. All political parties will welcome this announcement, so thank you for bringing that here.

I'm switching to the Coast Guard for a second, and following up on Kitsilano Coast Guard Station. Will that continue to be fully staffed 24-7 and not using on-call staff? There was concern about moving to on call.

[Terry Beech, Liberal, Burnaby North—Seymour, BC]

I understand the question that you're raising. In fact, we're increasing our resources at the Kitsilano base.

I'll hand it over to the commissioner to expand on this.

[Jeffery Hutchinson]

There are different ways to staff a station with 24-7 capability. If we look at other first responder organizations, you might look at municipal fire departments, where some staff 12 hours on and 12 hours off, while some staff 24 hours, and some smaller communities don't have that kind of posture at all.

What we are in the process of doing is moving away from having three crew 12 hours, three crew 12 hours, with only a maximum of three people available at any given moment, to a posture where we have six people available at any given moment. They will be working on-duty for eight hours, plus sixteen hours of on-call, as you referred to, Mr. Donnelly. Their shifts will be staggered, so they won't all be on duty at the same time. That general statement will be supplemented by, what we call our standing orders, which will ensure that we have people at the station 24 hours a day, and that all six of those crew members are available within the response times we're committed to.

Why have we made this change to our crewing posture—