I've been involved in the DFO process for about 10 years now, and I've looked with a lot of interest at the role of the different branches in science and oceans and all that. One way to summarize it is that science is only consulted when somebody else needs advice, but they're not necessarily encouraged to provide advice spontaneously. In the MPA process specifically, science is very important for originally designating the area, but the rest of the process is carried out by the oceans branch. They don't necessarily request advice from science on the modifications made to the initial recommendation. For instance, if science says we need something big with no take, and then we get something small with partial take, they don't ask if it still works. That's a concern we have, because we think that the outcome sometimes is not scientifically sound.
On June 15th, 2017. See this statement in context.