Evidence of meeting #9 for Fisheries and Oceans in the 43rd Parliament, 2nd session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was lobster.
A video is available from Parliament.
Bloc
Marilène Gill Bloc Manicouagan, QC
I want to move a motion on the seal hunt. That the Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans undertake a comprehensive study of seals that would examine the ecosystem impacts of seal overpopulation in the waters of Quebec and eastern Canada, international experience in seal stock management, the domestic and international market potential for various seal products, social acceptability, and the socio-cultural importance of developing the seal hunt for coastal and first nations communities with access to the resource.
Liberal
Ken Hardie Liberal Fleetwood—Port Kells, BC
Would Ms. Gill like to include the west coast? We have lots of seals out there.
Conservative
Mel Arnold Conservative North Okanagan—Shuswap, BC
Mr. Hardie already mentioned what I was about to speak about. There are indications of seal and sea lion overpopulation on the west coast, and there seem to be developing markets for those seals. We should look at all coasts if we're going to study seals and predators.
Conservative
Blaine Calkins Conservative Red Deer—Lacombe, AB
Mr. Chair, I thought that in the last Parliament, or maybe it was the one before that, we studied the seal issue almost as much as the small craft harbour issue. I'm pretty sure those reports are side by each going back through history for the last 15 or 20 years or so. I'm more than happy to take a look at this, because it is an issue.
We should do a whole-of-ecosystem study, and actually study the Department of Fisheries and Oceans' ability to do ecosystem-based management of species across the whole plethora of cetaceans, fish, the benthic zone and so on. There are a whole bunch of creatures that can't be actively managed by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, including pinnipeds, in proportion to the rest of the food chain, so I'm more than happy to have this discussion.
November 23rd, 2020 / 5:50 p.m.
Liberal
Bobby Morrissey Liberal Egmont, PE
In the spring, this committee approved a motion that I had submitted.
Madame Gill, it had similar objectives to your study. It was re-tabled with the clerk in both official languages. Maybe we could put the two together. The study I wanted was that we travel to the west European countries that have been successful in managing the seal population and get testimony from them.
Mr. Calkins, in the five years that I've been on the committee, I don't recall the committee's studying seals in particular.
Conservative
Blaine Calkins Conservative Red Deer—Lacombe, AB
It might have been back during Harper's time. I know that we've done it. It might have been back even before that.
Liberal
Bobby Morrissey Liberal Egmont, PE
Okay.
On this one, I think it's timely for us to do it. This growing population is a concern on both east and west coasts. Perhaps we could blend the two together.
Madame Gill, would you comment, please? You were present when the committee made a decision on a motion I had brought. I'm wondering if we could bring the two together, including travel to see those countries that have actually been effectively managing the seal population.
NDP
Gord Johns NDP Courtenay—Alberni, BC
It's not often that Mr. Calkins and I agree, but I think we need to take a whole-of-ecosystem-based approach in looking at species. I agree with him that it needs to be expanded and be broader—certainly having forage fish involved as well and the different predators. I think it's important that we talk more about a whole-of-ecosystem-based approach in how this committee takes a look at things, because I think a lot of work needs to be done here.
Bloc
Marilène Gill Bloc Manicouagan, QC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I want to address the following points.
I'm totally open to including the west. We could simply amend the motion to that effect. It's a bit like Mr. Morrissey's motion as well. I completely agree with his motion, except for one aspect. If I recall correctly, the motion referred to travelling abroad, particularly to Nordic countries such as Iceland. Given the COVID situation, this aspect shouldn't be added to the motion.
Regarding Mr. Johns' comment, the idea isn't to completely exclude the seal from the ecosystem. I wouldn't believe in this. All ecosystems must be taken into consideration. The idea was really to focus on the seal species in general. The seal is indeed a predator. However, we really want to see the scientific evidence and look at solutions for the seal fishery.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ken McDonald
Thank you, Madame Gill.
Our time for today is getting very short. I don't know if we want to vote on this or if we want to....
Mr. Arnold.
Conservative
Mel Arnold Conservative North Okanagan—Shuswap, BC
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I wasn't sure whether you were using the “raise hand” function or looking at the physical waving of the hand.
Conservative
Mel Arnold Conservative North Okanagan—Shuswap, BC
Good.
As Mr. Morrissey pointed out, he had a motion in the last session that, yes, we were going to look at seals on both coasts. I don't know whether it was actually voted on and passed this session or not, but I did notice a difference between it and the previous motion that was passed. In his motion he wanted the committee to call witnesses, including indigenous communities, senior departmental officials and so on, but in his second motion, introduced in October 2020, he removed the piece about the inclusion of indigenous communities. I'm just wondering why that was.
Since we're also running out of time today, I would suggest that possibly Madame Gill and Mr. Morrissey—
Conservative
Mel Arnold Conservative North Okanagan—Shuswap, BC
Excuse me. I have the floor.
Perhaps we can circulate some of these motions and come up with one motion that would cover it all.
NDP
Gord Johns NDP Courtenay—Alberni, BC
It's not related to this. I just wanted to say something at the very end with regard to witnesses.
This is no dig at you, Mr. Williamson. I appreciate your local knowledge especially, but we all submitted lists for the last study, and now we're coming in with names. I want to make sure that we're working together on this. I certainly appreciate the flexibility right now, because it is a study that came up on us fast, given the circumstances, but we did take witnesses. Now we're taking witnesses still for this study. Are we all able to submit witnesses? That's on the current study.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ken McDonald
I would suggest, Mr. Johns, that anybody can get in touch with the clerk and put forward a witness for what's left of the study on the moderate livelihood.
I will make a recommendation to both Madame Gill and Mr. Morrissey. Perhaps over the next few days, you can collaborate somewhat and bring back a motion that maybe incorporates what you're both trying to do to make sure that the wording is included. I wouldn't want to see our voting on two things that are overlapping. We can probably deal with it at the end of one of the meetings coming up in the next week.
Right now, we are completely out of time. There's not even time to do a vote.
Thank you to everybody again for your co-operation this evening. Hopefully the advice on the seal one will pan out to be something. I will say that here on the east coast, it is a major problem. I'd love to see something done about it or at least recommendations to try to solve the issue to some degree to the satisfaction of the people in the fishing industry.
Again, thank you everyone. Thank you Nancy, clerks and staff. It was a great meeting again today. See you next Wednesday.
I'll now adjourn the meeting and wish everybody a good evening.