Fisheries Committee on June 1st, 2020

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

Mr. Chair, I'm not clear on the motion as amended. Could I have it repeated, please?

[The Chair, Liberal, Ken McDonald]

When you are ready, Nancy.

[The Clerk]

The motion by Madam Gill reads as follows:

That pursuant to the order of reference of May 26, 2020 the Committee undertake a study of at least four meetings to identify the impacts of COVID-19 on fishing industry stakeholders such as independent fishers, processing plants, First Nations and workers; that the Committee call witnesses including senior department officials from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, and interested stakeholders groups to testify; and that the Committee report its conclusions and recommendations to the House.

An amendment was adopted to modify “First Nations” to “indigenous” and we would add what Mr. Calkins called “recreational fishers”.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ken McDonald]

Is that understood, Mr. Arnold?

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

We've called for the minister to appear already. Is this going to be part of—

[The Chair, Liberal, Ken McDonald]

Mel, we're in the middle of a vote on this one.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

[The Clerk]

We will go back to the vote on the motion.

(Motion as amended agreed to: yeas 11; nays, 0 [See Minutes of Proceedings])

[The Chair, Liberal, Ken McDonald]

Thank you, Nancy.

Thank you, everyone. That might be our first unanimous vote today.

Mr. Cormier.

[Serge Cormier, Liberal, Acadie—Bathurst, NB]

I would like to present a notice of motion. May I do it now?

[The Chair, Liberal, Ken McDonald]

Yes, by all means.

[Serge Cormier, Liberal, Acadie—Bathurst, NB]

All right, I have it in English and French.

That the Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans undertake a study to examine the fishery management measures put in place to protect North Atlantic right whales, in order to evaluate the impact these measures have had on the reduction of right whale deaths in Atlantic Canada and Quebec as well as the impact on the economy of coastal communities in these regions and to provide the government with options and recommendations to improve these measures; that the Committee call witnesses including senior officials from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada and interested stakeholder groups to testify before the Committee; that the Chair be empowered to coordinate the necessary witnesses, resources and scheduling to complete this task; and that the Committee report its conclusions and recommendations to the House of Commons.

So that the committee is not rushed, I propose that we do this study only when we return to Parliament, in the fall or winter.

I think you are all aware of this, but for those who are not, let me remind you that since 2017, in my region, the Gulf of St. Lawrence, as well as elsewhere in Quebec, particularly in the Magdalen Islands, right whales have been observed, and the government has had to introduce exceptional measures to protect them.

This has had an impact on our fishers, our coastal communities, our plants and their workers. Every year since 2017, we have been finding dead right whales, which has led us to implement measures that have become stricter every year. We were also able to improve them in 2018 and 2019 to improve the coexistence between whales and fishers.

As you know, if we do not protect this endangered species, it will certainly have a detrimental effect on the markets to which we export our crab, lobster and other fish species around the world.

I therefore propose that we do a study, but only when we come back to the House, either in the fall or this winter. This will allow us to hear from people who have experienced the effects of the presence of right whales in our area, including fishing organizations and fishers. I feel that this study should be done in cooperation with all these different groups, because once again this year, the whales are in the Gulf well ahead of schedule.

This year, we did our best to ensure that the fishing season starts well ahead of the date that was usual in previous years. Unfortunately, although our efforts were successful, COVID-19 hit and we were unable to start the fishing season before the right whales arrived, as we would have liked.

So I feel that a study of this kind should be done so that we can hear from people and give them the opportunity to propose new measures that could be more beneficial to fishers, plants, plant workers and communities as a whole. That is why I am proposing that we do this study, but only when we come back to the House.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ken McDonald]

Thank you for that clarification, Mr. Cormier, because at the beginning you said you were giving a notice of motion, and I just had to find out whether you were actually moving it, because you were speaking to it, and you can move a motion during committee business.

Mr. Calkins.

[Blaine Calkins, Conservative, Red Deer—Lacombe, AB]

Chair, I find it very entertaining to listen to a motion proposing a new study coming from a party that just voted down increased hours to do studies. However, I do believe that the motion is a worthwhile one to discuss and to have brought in front of the committee. I would amend the motion by adding, in front of the words “department officials”, invite “the minister and” department officials. Let's see if the minister has some solutions for us.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ken McDonald]

The amendment is to add the words “the minister and” in front of “department officials”. Is there any discussion on the amendment?

Mr. Fast.

[Ed Fast, Conservative, Abbotsford, BC]

No. I was going to speak to the main motion. If this is an amendment, I'll speak to the main motion after this.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ken McDonald]

Not hearing any interventions on the amendment, Nancy, we'll go to the vote.

(Amendment negatived: nays 6; yeas 5)

Now we turn to the main motion as presented.

Mr. Fast.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ken McDonald]

Now we turn to the main motion as presented.

Mr. Fast.

[Ed Fast, Conservative, Abbotsford, BC]

I want to echo the comments of my colleague, Mr. Calkins.

Is the committee not puzzled by the irony of this motion? The issue of right whale protection and predation is certainly worthy of study. We've gone through the list of motions I mentioned earlier. I would ask the clerk to tell us how many studies we now have on the docket to consider.

[The Clerk]

I do not have the total number of studies right now. I believe that at the second meeting the committee adopted about 10 or 12 motions and we just adopted one for COVID. I can make the final calculation to give you the correct number if you give me a few minutes, but it would definitely be over 10.

[Ed Fast, Conservative, Abbotsford, BC]

Again I go back to it. Isn't it ironic? Here we have 10, 11, maybe 12 studies that we're looking to undertake and for weeks now we Conservatives have been asking the Prime Minister to have Parliament return to a normal routine and normal schedule and the Prime Minister has repeatedly said no to returning to normal sittings of the House.

Our committee, which has not sat for three months, is being asked to undertake at least anywhere from 10 to 12 studies, and yet just a few minutes ago the Liberal and NDP members of this committee said a big no to meeting more regularly during the summer, a proposal that would have allowed us at least to start to work on these studies. I just don't understand how this committee can expect to do all of its work when it's not prepared to make up for lost time from the last three months and sit a little more often during the summer. I'm just gobsmacked, quite frankly, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ken McDonald]

Thank you, Mr. Fast.

Mr. Johns.

[Gord Johns, NDP, Courtenay—Alberni, BC]

First, Mr. Chair, I have to respond to that comment by my colleague.

It was the NDP, actually, that worked with the government—pressured the government—so this committee would start sitting as the next committee to sit. Here we are; we've committed to sitting over the summer. The Conservatives initially wanted the House to rise on June 17 and reconvene in September.

Right now we're sitting over the summer and we have a chance while we're sitting over the summer to increase meetings should we decide to do that. We have to be cognizant of our whips and the staff of the House of Commons, and whether it's even feasible to have further meetings. We're starting with two, and I think this is an opportunity right now for us to get started.

I agree that we have a lot of work to do and a lot of catching up to do, which is why we're sitting over the summer, why we're going to have questions at the COVID committee over the summer, and why we're having 90-minute question periods instead of 45-minute question periods.

This is something we could talk about all day, and we can spend our committee time on this, but right now adding this study gives us a chance to prioritize how we're going to work going forward. Yes, we have a lot of studies. I'm up for increased meetings. The New Democrats are not opposed to that. In fact, we are the ones who have been pushing for this committee to sit and for us to meet over the summer months. There's no hesitation for us to want to work harder and more, but we have to make sure we do it with our party whips and make sure we're cognizant of the staff of the House of Commons so that this is feasible. We're starting with those two meetings.

I support the motion. I think it's a good motion for us to have on our docket. As we look at our priorities, certainly it can't be ahead of what we've identified we need to study that we had agreed to in March. Those studies are going to take us into the fall. Certainly, salmon is going to take us through the summer and into the fall, because it's a study that needs priority attention.

I support this motion.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ken McDonald]

Thank you, Gord.

Madam Gill.

[Marilène Gill, Bloc, Manicouagan, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I would just like to make one small correction to what Mr. Johns said about the House sitting. This is not the usual Parliament. We are not sitting this summer. On the contrary, the motion as presented means that we are still in a committee, the Special Committee on the COVID-19 Pandemic. Therefore, we do not have all the powers we usually have.

I wanted to correct that information, which seemed inaccurate to me.