Evidence of meeting #95 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 habitat.

A video is available from Parliament.

On the agenda

MPs speaking

Also speaking

Chair  Mrs. Bernadette Jordan (South Shore—St. Margarets, Lib.)
Churence Rogers  Bonavista—Burin—Trinity, Lib.
Philippe Morel  Assistant Deputy Minister, Aquatic Ecosystems Sector, Department of Fisheries and Oceans
Darren Goetze  Director General, Conservation and Protection, Department of Fisheries and Oceans
Adam Burns  Director General, Fisheries Resource Management, Department of Fisheries and Oceans
Nicholas Winfield  Director General, Ecosystems Management, Department of Fisheries and Oceans
Mark Waddell  Acting Director General, Fisheries and Licence Policy, Fisheries and Harbour Management, Department of Fisheries and Oceans

10:35 a.m.

Assistant Deputy Minister, Aquatic Ecosystems Sector, Department of Fisheries and Oceans

Philippe Morel

I see hundreds and thousands of responses from the department—

10:35 a.m.

Conservative

Larry Miller Conservative Bruce—Grey—Owen Sound, ON

I respect that.

10:35 a.m.

Assistant Deputy Minister, Aquatic Ecosystems Sector, Department of Fisheries and Oceans

Philippe Morel

—that we provide on time, in the best way we can to provide information to Canadians. I don't know about this particular letter that MP Sopuck referred to, but we will look at it and see why there are delays. There are always reasons for delays. Is it that the information provided was incomplete? Did we need to investigate? I cannot provide you with the answer on this particular case, but we certainly have standards—

10:35 a.m.

Conservative

Larry Miller Conservative Bruce—Grey—Owen Sound, ON

Could I just stop you there? Mr. Morel, these are my five minutes.

On a point that you made, I don't expect you to personally know all of them—of course not, you can't possibly—or the minister. The minute Mr. Sopuck brought that up there should have been people sitting in here, there should have been emails flying, saying, “Get that minister a response this afternoon.”

10:35 a.m.

Mrs. Bernadette Jordan (South Shore—St. Margarets, Lib.)

The Chair

Thank you, Mr. Miller. Your time is up.

Very quickly, please, Mr. Morel....

10:35 a.m.

Assistant Deputy Minister, Aquatic Ecosystems Sector, Department of Fisheries and Oceans

Philippe Morel

If I could...because it's to the credibility of my team. With due respect, I didn't take my BlackBerry to send an email, but Nick was sitting there and he told me that he already sent an email to follow up. I did also put a big X next to Mr. Sopuck's comments. We're taking that seriously. Sometimes it takes more time to answer the question because we want to provide the right answer. It's not because we're not respecting Canadians, or MPs, or MLAs.

10:35 a.m.

Mrs. Bernadette Jordan (South Shore—St. Margarets, Lib.)

The Chair

Thank you, Mr. Morel.

Because we are down to the last five minutes, I'm going to give Mr. Rogers one question and Mr. Donnelly one question, and then everyone will have had their turn. Then we have to go over to the Wellington Building.

Mr. Rogers, you have one question, please.

10:35 a.m.

Bonavista—Burin—Trinity, Lib.

Churence Rogers

All right, I have just a brief question. I'm not sure how long the answer will take. It's a direct question. Have sections 32, 35, and 36 been re-examined for the purpose of environmental assessment triggers?

10:40 a.m.

Director General, Ecosystems Management, Department of Fisheries and Oceans

Nicholas Winfield

As it stands, they are not triggers of the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act. Bill C-69 is the act that deals with that. I would note, though, that fisheries are a significant trigger for environmental assessment. Not in the way that it was prior to 2012, with a trigger coming from a law list regulation, but fisheries are still a major issue that triggers an environmental impact assessment. It's just not defined in the way that it was prior to 2012 in those three sections.

10:40 a.m.

Bonavista—Burin—Trinity, Lib.

Churence Rogers

I asked that question specifically because I sit on the environment committee.

10:40 a.m.

Mrs. Bernadette Jordan (South Shore—St. Margarets, Lib.)

The Chair

Thank you very much, Mr. Rogers.

Mr. Donnelly, you'll have the final question, please.

10:40 a.m.

NDP

Fin Donnelly NDP Port Moody—Coquitlam, BC

Thank you, Chair.

Just to follow up on Mr. Rogers' question, could we get the difference between the two pieces of legislation sent to the committee? I'd be very interested in knowing how the Fisheries Act is a trigger or not.

I want to come back to Mr. Sopuck's question about habitat banking. He's talking about opening up damage in one watershed to compensation and enhancement in another watershed, potentially kilometres away, which for me is also very distressing. At a local level, we want to see that watershed intact for fisheries.

Mr. Winfield, you were referencing that you were open to the idea of broadening that idea of basically allowing one watershed to be totally destroyed and then sometimes enhancing another watershed, and it could be beyond capacity in some issues.

10:40 a.m.

Director General, Ecosystems Management, Department of Fisheries and Oceans

Nicholas Winfield

What I referred to is a service level area, which is essentially an ecosystem within the general area of the activity. It's not to say going from one province to another province or thousands of miles away. It's simply to say that it's broader than the site of the impact and it has to be on a scale that addresses the types of fish populations that are being impacted by a project within that vicinity.

10:40 a.m.

NDP

Fin Donnelly NDP Port Moody—Coquitlam, BC

Are there maps or are there...?

10:40 a.m.

Director General, Ecosystems Management, Department of Fisheries and Oceans

Nicholas Winfield

This is all to be developed.

10:40 a.m.

Mrs. Bernadette Jordan (South Shore—St. Margarets, Lib.)

The Chair

Thank you very much, Mr. Donnelly.

I want to thank our officials for being here today.

We will reconvene in 15 minutes in room 320, Wellington Building, in a new meeting.

The meeting is adjourned.