Fisheries Committee on June 3rd, 2020

[Jean-Guy Forgeron]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Then I'll conclude by saying that DFO will continue to work with its partners and stakeholders to build on the important work accomplished to date to support our vital fish and seafood industries.

I welcome the questions of the committee.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ken McDonald]

Thank you for that and thank you for your patience, and we send a big thank you to the technical staff as well, who have been trying to straighten out these issues for us as we try to get through this meeting today.

We'll start with a first round of questioning of six minutes or less for each. As I said earlier, I'll try to be very tight on the time limits.

Mr. Arnold will begin.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I thank the witnesses for being here today, and I recognize the work that DFO and the Coast Guard have gone through to try to manage to get through this COVID situation and help our harvesters and processors get through it.

My first question is for Mr. Henderson with the Coast Guard.

Has the Canadian Coast Guard provided guidance for personnel safety on board their vessels in respect of the COVID-19 situation?

[Chris Henderson, Deputy Commissioner, Operations, Canadian Coast Guard]

I'm very happy to advise that absolutely we have detailed, extensive guidance for our personnel on all vessels and in shore bases and installations. There are detailed screening procedures. Either a rescue specialist or a delegate from the ship's commanding officer will screen everybody coming on board our ships and will ask folks who are exhibiting symptoms of COVID to not enter the ship or the facility and to go and get tested.

We have extensive standard operating procedures for everything from extensive cleaning of vessels if there is a suspected contamination to how to don and use personal protective equipment appropriately.

We have engaged—

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

Would there be protocols for all sizes of vessels within the Coast Guard?

[Chris Henderson]

Yes, sir, there would be.

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

Okay, thank you.

When was this guidance provided?

[Chris Henderson]

We started developing the guidance in February as we saw COVID coming towards us. After mid-March, when the lockdown happened, we started to publish the guidance on our Intranet page, which is internal to the Coast Guard and DFO, but in the context of many of our crew members being off cycle, not having access to the departmental system, we published it on the Internet. We have been developing and maintaining it since the middle of March.

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

Okay. Thank you.

What federal government entities or departments contributed to producing the guidelines and protocols?

[Chris Henderson]

We've worked extensively with the Public Health Agency of Canada, Transport Canada and Health Canada. We've worked closely with Public Safety Canada through the government operations centre there, because they are coordinating a lot of the federal response. We sought input from our federal partners.

We also consulted extensively with our bargaining agents within the Coast Guard and DFO to make sure that labour was comfortable with what we were coming up with.

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

Thank you.

My next questions will go to Mr. Forgeron.

When did DFO begin developing the Canadian seafood stabilization fund?

[Jean-Guy Forgeron]

I can't remember the exact date, but when it became very clear that there was a drop in demand for seafood products, as evidenced by prices at the wharf, in the case of the stabilization fund, one of the things we wanted to make sure happened was that processors were in the best position possible to continue to receive seafood from harvesters.

We started engagement early on—in March, I would say—with our regional agency colleagues to assess what would be required to help the processors, both as a subsector of our sector but in particular to be well positioned to continue to take on fish from our harvesting community for their benefit.

I would say it was sometime in late March, but I don't know the exact date.

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

I was muted by the chair. I hope that I'm back online and that I have time left.

What seafood processing organizations and operators were consulted in developing the seafood stabilization fund?

[Jean-Guy Forgeron]

We have ongoing consultations with members of the industry—for instance, the Fisheries Council of Canada and the Canadian Aquaculture Industry Alliance—both bilaterally and multilaterally on what the different segments of the industry require to address what's going on during this pandemic.

[Marilène Gill, Bloc, Manicouagan, QC]

I have a point of order.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ken McDonald]

Yes, go ahead.

[Marilène Gill, Bloc, Manicouagan, QC]

I am sorry, Mr. Chair.

I know that we have already lost a lot of time, but because of the poor sound quality, I missed all of the interpretation from the beginning of Mr. Forgeron's speech. I am sorry to waste any more time, but I would like to hear the interpretation so that I can fully participate in the meeting.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ken McDonald]

Nancy, could you check with interpretation to see if everything is working?

[The Clerk]

Yes, I will.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ken McDonald]

We'll suspend for a moment.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ken McDonald]

I hear from the clerk that the technical people are suggesting that the reason we couldn't quite understand the translation was that there was no headset being used. It's much easier, of course, with a headset like the one I have on.

Might I suggest in that instance that the witness could provide the committee with written or typed responses to the questions that have been asked so far? The clerk could forward them to us in both official languages, and we can move on to questioning of another witness.

That's my suggestion. I don't know if everybody agrees with that.

Hearing nothing, I'll say we're going to move on.

There are still about 55 seconds left in your questioning if you want to continue, Mr. Arnold.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'll try to make the best use of the time I can.

I'll come back to Mr. Forgeron. Why were Ontario, Nunavut, Yukon and the Northwest Territories excluded from the seafood stabilization fund?

[Jean-Guy Forgeron]

Whether or not they're going to be excluded from the fund is yet to be determined, Mr. Chair. Basically, the initial thought on the fund was to address pressures in the coastal fisheries that were federally regulated. As we announced the program and rolled it out, we've seen that there is probably a demand for assistance of a similar nature in other jurisdictions besides the four Atlantic provinces, Quebec and British Columbia.

We are working with regional agencies to determine whether that need would be best served through the stabilization fund or through other regional development agency programming that is being rolled out currently, like the regional relief recovery fund, for those organizations to address the freshwater processing industry sector requirements in that area. When we announce the details and roll out the programming for the stabilization fund, it'll be clearer which of these two funds the freshwater processing sector will be addressed through.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ken McDonald]

Thank you, Mr. Forgeron.

Thank you, Mr. Arnold.

We'll now move on to Mr. Battiste, for six minutes or less, please.

[Jaime Battiste, Liberal, Sydney—Victoria, NS]

Thank you.

I've been speaking to fishermen daily in Cape Breton, and our lobster harvesters are facing substantially reduced demand due to COVID-19. I've seen photos of literally piles of lobster that just won't be sold and will probably be wasted. Prices have dropped to about $4.25 per pound, the lowest price we've seen in a generation, and the market has been so weak that there have been quotas on the haul.

I'd like to get a sense of DFO's line of sight on this issue. I'd also like to get a sense of whether or not a government intervention is being considered.

We announced a food surplus purchase program. Is that something that we might leverage? This seems like exactly the sort of situation where a food surplus purchase program could play a role, and I'd like to get you to comment on that.