Evidence of meeting #101 for Fisheries and Oceans in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was quota.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Bloc
Caroline Desbiens Bloc Beauport—Côte-de-Beaupré—Île dOrléans—Charlevoix, QC
They didn't want you in their hair.
Director General, Fédération régionale acadienne des pêcheurs professionnels
No. It was very clear.
Bloc
Conservative
The Vice-Chair Conservative Mel Arnold
Thank you, Madame Desbiens.
We'll now go to Ms. Barron, please, for six minutes.
NDP
Lisa Marie Barron NDP Nanaimo—Ladysmith, BC
Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you to the witnesses for being here today.
My first question will perhaps be for Mr. Lanteigne.
My question is around the changeover from fishing northern shrimp to fishing for redfish. Can you share a little bit more about the costs associated with that, the gear changes and what that looks like in principle?
Director General, Fédération régionale acadienne des pêcheurs professionnels
As you know, they are already trawler boats, so it is basically a switch in the trawling equipment itself. It's a question of a new net, and of course it does mean some changes on deck. Right now most of them have a separator on board to remove smaller fish from shrimp. This has to be removed and some material has to be changed there.
However, there are no major changes there. The winches are the same. The trawl door will probably be the same.
The big equipment is a new set of nets. The actual figure that we have is anywhere between $100,000 to $150,000 per boat in order to make that transition.
NDP
Lisa Marie Barron NDP Nanaimo—Ladysmith, BC
Thank you.
That's a big cost. I'm wondering what you're hearing from those out on the water around the implications of those costs.
Director General, Fédération régionale acadienne des pêcheurs professionnels
It is a big cost, and it's been said by the managers of the AFF fund that we could access that fund for that purpose, so at least there's that possible help from that program at DFO. Are there sufficient funds for everybody? That's another part of the equation, but we've been told that we could access that.
Obviously, we're not going to start spending money that right now the guys don't have, and they're not going to do that for the minimum quota that has been allocated. It just doesn't make sense at all to purchase a set of new gear to do one trip or two trips. It doesn't work.
NDP
Lisa Marie Barron NDP Nanaimo—Ladysmith, BC
What do you think might happen, then, if people can't afford to make this change and the quota is not high enough to sustain or justify this change? What options do you think will be left remaining to those people?
Director General, Fédération régionale acadienne des pêcheurs professionnels
There are minimal options there. You'll see two things, basically.
One is boats remaining in the boatyard and not going on the water. That's for the guys who can at least wait maybe a year or so. The other case is a “for sale” affair, basically. That's what it is. There's no way out. There are no other solutions possible for them. There are no other resources they can access.
It just plainly doesn't make sense that our own government is forcing fishermen to sell their enterprises and on the other hand giving quotas to companies that don't need it. It's pure nonsense.
NDP
Lisa Marie Barron NDP Nanaimo—Ladysmith, BC
If the quota was increased for the local fishers, what would that look like as far as switching over to the redfish fishery? What would be the changes to fishers that would have to be considered in their day-to-day operation?
I'm not a fisher, so I don't know what that would look like in principle. What are some of the considerations if that redfish quota were increased to the local fishers? Do you feel that this is a sustainable fishery to move over to? Do you think that this will produce economic benefits for fishers moving forward?
I'd like to get your thoughts on that, please.
Director General, Fédération régionale acadienne des pêcheurs professionnels
It's like if you're playing cards and you just have one or two left in your hand. You don't have that many choices.
In the only options that we had, the first one was shrimp, which is basically gone, and the second one is redfish. In doing that, the option that we're trying to work on with some staff at DFO is to start with some quotas. Then, as Mrs. Desbiens was asking, is there a way that we could work out a plan to maximize that resource, get a better revenue out of it? Right now we're talking about 40¢ a pound, but we do firmly believe that you should just let the industry work, and then we're damn sure that we can work out a plan to get a better price for that fish.
However, right now we're going to start with a fish that is very small, basically used for bait. Before we do develop some potential markets, we need to work on that, and quality becomes an issue there.
NDP
Lisa Marie Barron NDP Nanaimo—Ladysmith, BC
I have only 15 seconds left, so I'm not going to do that to you. I appreciate the information you provided.
Conservative
The Vice-Chair Conservative Mel Arnold
Thank you, MP Barron.
We'll move on to our next round now. Mr. Perkins, you have five minutes.
February 29th, 2024 / 4:15 p.m.
Conservative
Rick Perkins Conservative South Shore—St. Margarets, NS
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, witnesses.
Let's start off with a quick answer. I believe both of you were involved in some element of this DFO consultation process, which I guess is continuing next week.
Director General, Fédération régionale acadienne des pêcheurs professionnels
Yes.
You said a quick question and a quick reply.
Conservative
Conservative
Rick Perkins Conservative South Shore—St. Margarets, NS
Thank you.
As you probably watched, when we had DFO officials here earlier this week, a lot of us questioned whether or not the 25,000 tonnes—which the minister mentioned as her minimum in the news release—was enough, and that it appeared, from all the documents I've seen that were shared at those committees, that the science said it could be anywhere from 88,000 tonnes to 312,000 tonnes. Is it your understanding that this would be done within that range, year after year in the next few years, or was that just a single-year level?
General Manager, Quebec Office of Shrimp Fishermen
Do you want to answer the question, Mr. Lanteigne?
Director General, Fédération régionale acadienne des pêcheurs professionnels
Go ahead, Mr. Element.
General Manager, Quebec Office of Shrimp Fishermen
Okay.
I'm pretty sure Jean would concur with me that we all know and we've all said that we need to develop that fishery gradually, for all the reasons mentioned before. The issue for us, in my humble opinion, is not what we're going to have to harvest this year but what we're going to harvest in three or four years down the road.
To come back to the answer that Jean gave to Mrs. Barron, we need to have enough quota to justify the required investments—which, by the way, are much lower for shrimpers than for anybody else.
Conservative
Rick Perkins Conservative South Shore—St. Margarets, NS
I appreciate that.
To follow up on that specific point that you made, I think it was you or Monsieur Lanteigne who said a million pounds to two million pounds would be needed, at a minimum, for viability. If that's the case, how many licence holders would that be? How much overall quota would be required, as a minimum for this year, for economic viability, just for the inshore fishery?
General Manager, Quebec Office of Shrimp Fishermen
At this point, if we include first nations, we have between 80 and 90 shrimp licences in the gulf. At the actual price of 40¢, the number quoted by Mr. Lanteigne of two million pounds is about what we would need. As Jean said, we all hope, and I firmly believe, that three or four years down the road we're going to increase significantly the price of that fish, which will mean that we will probably require less fish in the long run in order to be profitable.
Conservative
Rick Perkins Conservative South Shore—St. Margarets, NS
I appreciate that.
With that amount just for inshore, that would require a couple of hundred million pounds just to be viable in the first year, plus some portion allocated to the offshore with the historic allocation. Is there a market for that much redfish right now? I understand there may be processing capacity—and that's a bit of a question, according to DFO—but is there really a market to sell that? I understand there are millions of pounds already frozen that weren't able to be sold.