Fisheries Committee on Jan. 27th, 2021

[The Chair, Liberal, Ken McDonald]

Okay.

Mr. Arnold.

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

Thank you. As Mr. Johns brought up, that might fit into the IUU study to some extent. I believe the minister's mandate letter was to include bringing in a food-to-plate traceability system. IUU fisheries certainly impact that ability, so if we provide some extra time into that IUU study, maybe we can incorporate it into that.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ken McDonald]

Okay, Mr. Arnold, on that idea, how many meetings are you suggesting for the IUU study? Then we can start planning.

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

I'd have to look at the motion, but I believe we asked for a minimum of eight meetings on that.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ken McDonald]

Yes, “no fewer than eight two-hour meetings” is what was in the motion.

I would suggest, coming up, in our next couple of meetings, we do the salmon study, to get that done, if we can get the witnesses and the drafting instructions for the report as well. For the moderate livelihood one, we'll tag that in there as we go. Then the next thing we'll tackle is the IUU, and the motion did say “eight two-hour meetings”.

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

On the IUU study, can we see a compiled list of suggested witnesses? From that, we should be able to determine how many meetings we might require for that study. Once we get our witness list requests in, perhaps the clerk could provide the total list so we might be able to determine how many meetings we're going to need to fit in those witnesses before we set a fixed number of meetings for that study.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ken McDonald]

Okay. Mel, do you want to suggest a date for a deadline for the submission of witnesses? How about a deadline of February 5?

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

That would suit me. Does anyone else have any suggestions?

[The Chair, Liberal, Ken McDonald]

It would be a deadline of 5 p.m., on February 5, for prospective witnesses for the IUU study.

Hearing no complaints, we'll go with that.

Nancy, once we know that list, we will be able to determine whether we need five, six, seven or eight meetings. The motion did say eight two-hour meetings. We might need to use the full eight. We might only need five. I don't know, but as Mel said, we'll determine that from the list of witnesses.

[The Clerk]

That's perfect. Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ken McDonald]

Now do we want to deal with anything going forward after the IUU?

Mr. Bragdon.

[Richard Bragdon, Conservative, Tobique—Mactaquac, NB]

If we can, I believe we should put on the docket as well Mr. Morrissey's and Madam Gill's study on the pinniped or seal predation.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ken McDonald]

Okay. I think we have lots of time to discuss how many meetings for that and the deadline for witness submission. I don't think that's something we have to determine here today. We can do that as we go. That will certainly bring us up to the next couple of months at least, so I think we're in good shape now to get down to work.

Mr. Arnold.

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

I hope we can get these other two studies wrapped up that are in process right now. We don't know for sure if we're going to see potential legislation on an aquaculture act as well. That's something that has been talked about by your party for quite a while now, and we never know when our committee schedule is going to get disrupted by government business as well. Therefore, it would be good if we could wrap up the studies we've started before we get disrupted by anything else.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ken McDonald]

If we do, we'll just fit it in between whatever we're doing anyway. As you know, if there's legislation coming through the committee, that takes priority over anything we're doing.

I think we might want to leave it at that for now until we see what the schedule is going to look like now going forward. The salmon study will have two, and maybe an additional two meetings, so that's four meetings for that. Then we're saying maybe up to eight meetings for the IUU. That puts us well ahead. We'll keep in mind that one would follow the pinniped seal predation, or we'll mix it in if we have to.

[Marilène Gill, Bloc, Manicouagan, QC]

Would it be possible to discuss the time frame for the next study?

[The Chair, Liberal, Ken McDonald]

Yes. Which one do you mean as the next one, for the salmon?

[Marilène Gill, Bloc, Manicouagan, QC]

I'm thinking of the recreational fishing study, for example, which was mentioned earlier.

You mentioned the Board of Internal Economy, the Liaison Committee and the new headphone and testing guidelines. If I were to call witnesses from my riding, I would have to prepare them. In my riding, the territories are big and people don't have access to videoconferencing at all. There have been times when a witness has not been able to testify. I know that for this particular study, I will need it.

You have to prepare this well in advance to be able to welcome them and listen to them. That would make my job a lot easier, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ken McDonald]

Yes, I think going forward, Madam Gill, if you look at the calendar, it would probably be May before we get to do the sport fishery one. As I said earlier, we have lots of time to plan what's coming next after the salmon study and the IUU, when you look at the number of meetings.

If those take all of the meetings we talked about, that could mean 12 of the next meetings. That includes doing version one and version two of the moderate livelihood one, to get that actually tabled and put to bed. I understand what you're saying about needing a good heads-up for that particular study and to get your witnesses lined up. We'll make sure you get that consideration in every aspect that we can.

[Marilène Gill, Bloc, Manicouagan, QC]

Mr. Chair, the idea was raised that perhaps fewer meetings would be needed to do the study on illicit fishing. Would it be possible to slip in a meeting at some point to discuss the work of the committee, re-evaluate the schedule and see if we would have time before the end of this session to start at least one more study?

It's very difficult, because these people have to fly, if not boat, to get the opportunity to testify in committee. So it takes a lot of preparation and a lot of resources.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ken McDonald]

I understand. What I did say to Mr. Arnold was that once we get the witness list for the IUU, we'll be able to determine the number of meetings needed. As I said, it may not require the full eight. It might be four. It might be five. Then we will be able to plan a little bit better and we will do either a portion or a full meeting on committee business going forward, so we can give plenty of time and planning for witnesses, especially because under the new system that we're using, we have to have that extra time regardless to notify witnesses.

Is everybody okay with all of that?

I'll say goodbye and adjourn the meeting.

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

I just want to say that you should see a better version of me starting next week.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ken McDonald]

I didn't see anything wrong with the original version, Blaine.

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

No, I'm just kidding, of course.

In all seriousness, we've got a lot of good work to do here, and I'm glad we've got consensus on so many things. I thought I'd throw some levity in there, because this is a very collegial committee, and I hope it stays that way.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ken McDonald]

Thanks, everyone, and you're right, Blaine, this is a very co-operative meeting and a co-operative group. I know we have our moments, and everybody is sometimes a little bit hot under the collar, but for the most part, we get things done as a group.