Fisheries Committee on Feb. 6th, 2018

[The Chair, Liberal, Scott Simms]

Mr. Donnelly.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you for the additional points. I'm glad a question was asked about enforcement and resources, because that was a follow-up question. My follow-up question will be on minimum standards.

In the department's opinion, wouldn't bringing in a minimum standard increase efficiency and certainty for the industry, for instance, about where those protection areas are and how they're, hopefully, going to work?

[Philippe Morel]

Yes, totally. I think it will bring certainty for stakeholders when we consult them on what the protection could be. That's also part of the discussion, and when we talk about minimum standards, it's also part of the categorization of MPAs, and some may have different protection than others do.

We heard a lot of comment that the first category should have one or two minimum standards, and we're looking for the panel to give us some recommendations. They will have some hearings and make recommendations to the minister on whether there should be minimum standards and what they should be for MPAs.

[The Chair, Liberal, Scott Simms]

Mr. Finnigan.

[Pat Finnigan, Liberal, Miramichi—Grand Lake, NB]

We have been consulting, of course. That's been the word here this morning. We've done a lot, whether it was done right or not. Once we have all these MPAs established, are we going to keep the consultation process going and update it and have benchmarks, and can we inform the stakeholders as to whether we've been able to accomplish the goals and whether we need to do more?

[Philippe Morel]

Maybe I'll answer the first part and ask Ms. Chute if she wants to add something.

We've been consulting extensively and I also heard testimony previously and last week that some may think that Ocean Group is not consulting the fishing industry and vice versa. It's not true.

First of all, last year I was ADM for both sectors, and Kevin Stringer was there before, and we made sure that the consultations happened among all the sectors.

That collegiality remains, and I have to say that the work we did with Mr. Gilchrist's team for the marine conservation target and that the fisheries closure was very good collegial work, in which we consulted the stakeholders. We do have our stakeholders. Each program has its own natural stakeholders, but we also reached out to other stakeholders to make sure we had a broad consultation.

As for what we will do afterwards, management plans are established for the MPA or fisheries closures. Part of that is the consultation and part is the monitoring.

Maybe, Christie, you want to add something.

[Christie Chute]

For every MPA we establish, we create an advisory committee, and that advisory committee not only supports the work we do to establish the site, but also remains in place throughout the long-term management of the area. We use that committee as the venue to bring drafts of management plans. We work together to finalize those. We work with that advisory committee to establish monitoring plans and to implement monitoring and research in the area. We will review the management plans on a cyclical basis, typically every five years, review any new science that comes along, and we might make changes based on the new science.

The advisory committee that's there, which has representation from a broad spectrum of Canadian society, is the venue we use to continue to check in and to develop a management regime that is successful for the long term.

[The Chair, Liberal, Scott Simms]

Thank you, Ms. Chute.

Go ahead, Mr. Hardie.

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

Can you quickly differentiate between an area of interest and the new authorities under Bill C-55 for the interim MPAs?

[Philippe Morel]

Sure. The process to establish an MPA starts with the EBSAs, or ecologically and biologically significant areas. After that, it may lead to an area of interest.

Under the Oceans Act, the process now is to wait to implement some protection, from the moment the areas of interest are announced until the regulatory process, which usually takes seven to ten years.

What the proposed amendments in Bill C-55 will do is to enable the minister to freeze the footprint for a certain period, likely when the area of interest is announced. It will freeze the footprint during the consultation that will lead to the regulatory process. It's a process that will make sure that no harm or additional activity takes place in the area that is designed to meet some conservation objective, so it's really about the protection. It's not limiting the consultation. It's not changing the consultation. It's just freezing the footprint while the regulatory process happens.

[The Chair, Liberal, Scott Simms]

Thank you very much, Mr. Morel.

Thank you, Ms. Chute, as well, and that ends it.

Before I put down the gavel, I want to ask everyone to remain in their seat for a couple of minutes. I have a couple of quick questions. I don't think there's any need to do this formally, so perhaps you could just hang on.

In the meantime, I want to thank Ms. Chute and Mr. Morel for their input here today. As I said, that sums up our witness testimony.

Do not forget that our deadline for recommendations is this Friday at noon. I'd love to have your recommendations, folks, so that Thai, our analyst, can start working on version one.

Yes, Mr. Arnold.

[Mel Arnold, Conservative, North Okanagan—Shuswap, BC]

I have a respectful request, that there be a soft extension of that deadline. Whether it be by design or not, we're going to have a pretty extensive workload for the next few days, with the Fisheries Act being announced today. In recognition of staffing resources and our time, may we extend that deadline possibly to Monday?

[The Chair, Liberal, Scott Simms]

Is there any input on that?

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

I would concur with that request.

[The Chair, Liberal, Scott Simms]

Does anybody else wish to weigh in on that request before I make a ruling?

Go ahead, Ms. Jordan.

[Bernadette Jordan, Liberal, South Shore—St. Margarets, NS]

I'd like Thai's opinion on that.

[The Chair, Liberal, Scott Simms]

I thought you might because I was going to go there too, so thank you.

Do you have any words of advice, Mr. Analyst? Keep in mind that we're still public.

[Thai Nguyen, Committee Researcher]

Monday is okay.

[Mel Arnold, Conservative, North Okanagan—Shuswap, BC]

We'll get as much as we can early, but having an extension to Monday would greatly appreciated.

[The Chair, Liberal, Scott Simms]

How about I propose Monday at 5 o'clock, the end of that working day?

[Mel Arnold, Conservative, North Okanagan—Shuswap, BC]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Scott Simms]

That is 5 p.m. eastern time. Are we all good with that? Okay, great. We now have a deadline for recommendations, which is this coming Monday, February 12, at 5 p.m. eastern time.

Again, thank you to our guests. Perhaps I could get everyone to stick behind for just a couple of minutes.

Thank you, everyone.