Evidence of meeting #3 for Fisheries and Oceans in the 43rd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was herring.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Conservative
Ed Fast Conservative Abbotsford, BC
Just so it reads properly, “indigenous” should probably come after “small businesses”, because “small businesses” is not a community but the other two are.
Conservative
Blaine Calkins Conservative Red Deer—Lacombe, AB
I think it should come after the “and”, if that's okay.
NDP
Conservative
Blaine Calkins Conservative Red Deer—Lacombe, AB
It should read “and indigenous and coastal communities”, something to that effect.
Conservative
Blaine Calkins Conservative Red Deer—Lacombe, AB
It's a wonderful amendment.
(Amendment agreed to [See Minutes of Proceedings])
Liberal
Bobby Morrissey Liberal Egmont, PE
I'd like to propose the following amendments to the motion.
The first amendment would change the last bullet under “Whereas” that now reads “since 2016”. I propose replacing that with “since 2016, the public fishery in British Columbia has been affected by record low returns of salmon, but a report”—
Liberal
Bobby Morrissey Liberal Egmont, PE
Sorry. It's good that you pointed that out.
I would propose replacing the words after the “Standing Committee” so that it would read “That the Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans undertake a study of the socio-economic impacts to recreational and commercial fishing communities on the south coast of B.C. resulting from the decision by the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans to implement closures due to conservation issues and record low salmon returns; and the committee also explore how the government can balance salmon conservation needs with the socio-economic needs of the fishing communities who depend on the health of the stocks.”
The rest would stay the same.
Conservative
Blaine Calkins Conservative Red Deer—Lacombe, AB
Mr. Chair, if we were to adopt this amendment by Mr. Morrissey, then the committee wouldn't need to do any work, because the presumption has already been made of why the closure has actually happened and the impacts that flowed from it.
There is great debate and great consternation amongst the community along the coast of British Columbia about whether there are actually record low returns of certain stocks of salmon. It would be presumptive of this committee to actually put the conclusion of the study in the motion of the study itself. Therefore, I would not recommend that we accept this amendment.
Conservative
Mel Arnold Conservative North Okanagan—Shuswap, BC
Could we suspend while we get a copy of the proposed amendment?
Liberal
Bobby Morrissey Liberal Egmont, PE
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Upon reflecting on this further, I'm going to withdraw the proposed amendment.
Liberal
NDP
Gord Johns NDP Courtenay—Alberni, BC
I think my amendment should cover off what we're wanting to do, which is to get a full explanation from the department to make sure we find out what consultations they made.
I appreciate Mr. Morrissey's motion. I just think it will water down Mr. Calkins' motion quite a bit to get to where we need to go. It's perhaps like a new motion.
Conservative
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ken McDonald
Hearing no further debate, we have a request for a recorded vote on the motion, as amended at least twice.
Mr. Arnold.
Conservative
Mel Arnold Conservative North Okanagan—Shuswap, BC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I believe we suspended until we could get a—
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ken McDonald
Mr. Morrissey withdrew his amendment.
I believe that's why Mr. Calkins said that makes things easier.
We're voting on the main motion, as amended twice by Mr. Johns.
(Motion as amended agreed to: yeas 11; nays 0 [See Minutes of Proceedings])
Now we're back to committee business. I believe we had started to talk about the schedule. Mr. Hardie mentioned a couple of important studies. I believe he mentioned the Big Bar salmon and the herring.
Mr. Hardie, do you have anything to add or clarify?