Evidence of meeting #68 for Fisheries and Oceans in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was going.
9:20 a.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Scott Simms
Folks, we're back and now being publicly recorded. I'm going to turn this over to our brand new clerk, who is going to put all this together for us. It's day one, and we put her on the spot.
Ms. Vohl, go ahead.
September 19th, 2017 / 9:20 a.m.
The Clerk of the Committee Ms. Nancy Vohl
Pursuant to Standing Order 106(2), the first vice-chair must be a member of the official opposition. I am now prepared to receive motions for the first vice-chair.
9:20 a.m.
Conservative
Mel Arnold Conservative North Okanagan—Shuswap, BC
Chair, it gives me great pleasure to nominate Todd Doherty as the first vice-chair of the fisheries committee.
9:20 a.m.
The Clerk
It has been moved by Mr. Arnold that Mr. Doherty be elected as first vice-chair of the committee. Are there any further motions?
9:20 a.m.
Some hon. members
No.
9:20 a.m.
The Clerk
Is it the pleasure of the committee to adopt the motion?
9:20 a.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Scott Simms
Mr. McDonald, I appreciate your enthusiasm at every election that's on the go, including this one; however, we have to follow the format here. We can wait for a comment when this is done.
9:20 a.m.
The Clerk
Is it the pleasure of the committee to adopt the motion?
(Motion agreed to)
9:20 a.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Scott Simms
I wonder if, for Mr. McDonald, there's a “Yes, with reluctance”. I don't know.
9:20 a.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Scott Simms
I can well imagine. May I remind everyone that we're in public?
Yes, it was a hard-fought campaign.
On a more serious note, to Mr. Doherty, Mr. Arnold, and Mr. Donnelly, our colleagues from British Columbia, all the best in the situation that you faced this summer and continue to face at this point. It is absolutely devastating. I only saw the smoke first-hand; I didn't see the fire.
Mr. Arnold.
9:20 a.m.
Conservative
Mel Arnold Conservative North Okanagan—Shuswap, BC
Thank you, Mr. Chair. On the fisheries committee we may want to take a look at some of the potential downstream effects of this fire situation. It's actually been so dry that, where the fires have burnt, there has been no rain to re-establish any vegetation. We're going to see snowfall on top of ash basically, and possibly extreme run-off conditions. We may need to look at some emergency situations. The potential effects of these fires are much further reaching than the current situation.
9:20 a.m.
Conservative
Todd Doherty Conservative Cariboo—Prince George, BC
Just to echo Mr. Arnold's comment, we are going to start to see our rivers and lakes filled with sediment from the areas that have been scorched. We are going to see more slide issues because the root structures have been devastated. The rivers in British Columbia and indeed the lakes in our interior—our inland fisheries and our salmon fisheries—are going to be deeply impacted by this. When you have an area that is three times the size of Prince Edward Island and one and a half times the size of the GTA that has been scorched and absolutely devastated, there's no disputing that this is going to have an immeasurable negative impact on our fish, lakes, and streams. It would be prudent for our committee to start looking at opportunities to engage our government with respect to emergency services, in terms of what we are looking at to assist us in British Columbia.
9:20 a.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Scott Simms
Thank you, Mr. Doherty. Would you be interested in preparing something for committee, something to bring back to us to consider? I assume there's something you'd like to do more about this, obviously from your speech, but is there anything specific or generalities you'd like to bring in?
9:20 a.m.
Conservative
Todd Doherty Conservative Cariboo—Prince George, BC
I would love to bring something back. As we talk about piecing our lives back together in my riding and in other areas of our province, we need to look at the immediate needs, and then we need to look at the long-term impacts on our forests, our rivers, and our streams. For those who haven't seen it, it is absolutely devastating. You have millions of acres that are scorched earth now, and that is going to impact our rivers, lakes, and streams.
9:25 a.m.
NDP
Fin Donnelly NDP Port Moody—Coquitlam, BC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
To add to that, I completely agree with both members' comments, my colleagues from B.C. I had the opportunity to be out on the Fraser. Combined with the fires in the interior that were devastating to communities and to the area—I believe it was in addition to 5% of the annual allowable cut that we lost—that was a huge loss.
9:25 a.m.
Conservative
Todd Doherty Conservative Cariboo—Prince George, BC
Mr. Chair, what we've lost to date—and it's still burning, and there are areas we can't get into yet—is 53 million cubic metres of forest. It would be a one-year annual allowable cut for our province and it's a 10-year allowable cut for my region, which is forestry dependent.
9:25 a.m.
NDP
Fin Donnelly NDP Port Moody—Coquitlam, BC
This is going to impact a significant number of jobs and families. On top of that, we had an incredibly low run return of Fraser River and Skeena River sockeye. We had a very small opening of the commercial fishery, and it was a first nations opening; it was tiny.
I paddle on the river every summer. Normally, it's packed with boats and recreational fishers line the shore. There was nobody the week we went through. The devastation was not only because of the fires but the low salmon return. The economies in those communities are impacted by this.
I concur and look forward to the suggestion of how this committee might play a role, not only in emergency services, but also in restructuring and restoring the fishery and those communities that are impacted. I hope there is some time within our fall schedule that we can look at this incredible devastation that's going to play out for years to come, as my colleague mentioned. The challenges that are faced by a low return, by the forest fires, by a changing climate, and by a number of other impacts can't be underscored. I think this committee would be well suited to taking a look at what we or the government can do to assist those communities in moving their renewal forward.
9:25 a.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Scott Simms
This sounds quite interesting.
I look forward to our colleagues in B.C. and not necessarily just B.C. Obviously, you can bring something to the committee that we can discuss. As I mentioned earlier, the MPA is not determined to end at the end of 2017. We can put it into 2018.
I see our other B.C. colleague, Mr. Hardie, wants to speak.
Go ahead.
9:25 a.m.
Liberal
Ken Hardie Liberal Fleetwood—Port Kells, BC
I think one of the things that we need to consider is the longer-term science about what happens after you have an event like this. Wildfires have been happening in B.C. for millennia. In one respect it's part of a natural cycle that happens there—
