Fisheries Committee on Oct. 9th, 2024

[Clifford Small, Conservative, Coast of Bays—Central—Notre Dame, NL]

I get nine and Gerry gets a minute and 20 more.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ken McDonald]

We'll now go to Ms. Jones.

Welcome to the committee.

You have six minutes or less.

[Yvonne Jones, Liberal, Labrador, NL]

Thank you, Mr. Chair. It's a pleasure to be here at committee today.

I want to first welcome Dr. Rose and say that it's nice to see you again, sir.

I also will congratulate Ms. Street on her recent election to the FFAW.

Minister Byrne, welcome back to committee in a different capacity.

Like most people in Newfoundland and Labrador, I've been involved in this fishery in one way, shape or form all my life. My family comes from the fishing industry of northern cod. From 1992 to 1996 I worked as an employment counsellor with fishers and plant workers who were displaced from the closure of northern cod. I eventually served in provincial politics and as the minister of fisheries in Newfoundland and Labrador.

From my perspective, I look at this for what it is. Since 2016, cod in Newfoundland and Labrador have been outside of the critical designation. Over that period of time, we've had a tremendous lobby, not from NAFO but from fishers in Newfoundland and Labrador, from the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador, from the FFAW, from the offshore and from Mr. Small to reopen the cod fishery at a TAC of no less than 25,000 metric tons. What the minister did was reopen it at 18,000 metric tons, 7,000 metric tons lower than any of those people requested—

[The Chair, Liberal, Ken McDonald]

Wait one second, Ms. Jones. We have a point of order from Mr. Small.

[Clifford Small, Conservative, Coast of Bays—Central—Notre Dame, NL]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

My point of order is regarding Ms. Jones' comment that I asked for a reopening. I asked simply for an increase in the quota. I made no reference to any reopening but simply to an increase to the quota under the stewardship framework.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

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

That was not a point of order, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ken McDonald]

Thank you.

Go ahead, Ms. Jones.

[Yvonne Jones, Liberal, Labrador, NL]

Thank you.

I hope it doesn't come off my time, Mr. Chair, but I have a copy of the letter by Mr. Small. It's already been tabled in committee. It does not speak to maintaining a stewardship fishery. It speaks to increasing the total allowable catch for northern cod in Newfoundland and Labrador.

There are letters that were written by fishers, by the MP and by many members of the FFAW, and from the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador there are three letters to the federal government, asking that this happen.

I'm going to go to Ms. Street first in my questioning.

Moving from a stewardship fishery to a commercial fishery in Newfoundland and Labrador allowed many of your members in the Labrador region to obtain a Labrador northern cod quota for the first time in their history. It allowed them to have access to this resource that they could not have access to under a stewardship fishery. I ask you, as the head of the union, do you support those fishers who wanted that done in Labrador and wanted that quota?

[Dwan Street]

Thank you.

We certainly support harvesters in Labrador, and I want to be clear here. When we supported—

[Yvonne Jones, Liberal, Labrador, NL]

Thank you very much. I appreciate your response.

I'd like to now go to Minister Byrne, please.

I would like to ask you, Minister Byrne—

[Dwan Street]

I wasn't finished.

[Yvonne Jones, Liberal, Labrador, NL]

I'm sorry; I'm on limited time here.

I want to go to you, Minister Byrne.

Do you support the fishers in Labrador that the inshore harvesters there should finally get access to northern cod adjacent to their communities and have access to that quota as a commercial fishery, or do you hold the position they should not?

[Gerry Byrne]

Mr. Chair, I'm somewhat at a loss as to the somewhat passive-aggressive nature of the question, in that naturally we are in support of inshore fishers from Labrador.

[Yvonne Jones, Liberal, Labrador, NL]

Well, let me explain it to you for just a minute.

[Gerry Byrne]

I don't understand where that question would come from.

[Yvonne Jones, Liberal, Labrador, NL]

As a stewardship fishery, the people of Labrador, for the last four years, the inshore fishers, could not access their own quota in Labrador and have a commercial-led fishery. In order for them to have their own quota, we had to move it to the next stage, a commercial fishery. We did so by increasing the TAC from 12,000 tonnes to 18,000 tonnes.

Do you agree that Labrador inshore fishermen should have access to the northern cod stock?

[Gerry Byrne]

Mr. Chair, the premise of the question is flawed. The designation of a commercial fishery versus a sentinel fishery is not less than any kind of—

[Yvonne Jones, Liberal, Labrador, NL]

It was not a sentinel fishery, Mr. Chair; it was a stewardship fishery, and my question is very clear. Under the stewardship fishery, for four years they were rejected. I am asking you today: Do you agree with Labradorians' having access to fish stocks adjacent to their shores under a commercial fishery?

[Gerry Byrne]

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I believe the premise to the question is that in order to get additional quota, there would have to be a required move to a commercial fishery from the test fishery, from the science fishery, to move to that additional quota. It automatically implied the designation of a commercial status. There is no evidence whatsoever to support that in either a fisheries term or a legal term. It is semantics, in other words.

[Yvonne Jones, Liberal, Labrador, NL]

In fact, Mr. Chair, I want to outline for the minister that the only way that could be done was moving to a commercial fishery.

The other thing I'd like to ask you, Minister, is this: Do you support the three indigenous groups in Labrador having access to northern cod under a commercial offshore fishery adjacent to their shores, or should they have been left out again from this allocation?

[Gerry Byrne]

Mr. Chair, I believe a straw man argument is being set up here. This is a requirement. The notion there is that there's a legal or binding scientific element to the designation of a commercial fishery versus a science-based fishery. I am not aware of any such terminology or designation that insists on the deployment of such a term—

[Yvonne Jones, Liberal, Labrador, NL]

Mr. Chair, the minister is not aware, so let me move on.

If the minister is not aware, I'll ask the head of the union.

Do you not support an offshore northern cod fishery in Labrador that allows access for the Innu nation, the Nunatsiavut government and NunatuKavut? That's what you're telling us here today and that's what the minister has told us here today.

[Dwan Street]

Mr. Chair, we support the upholding of the first 115,000 metric tonnes going to inshore and indigenous interests. We believe, as has been proven, that those indigenous allocations can be harvested by inshore harvesters and don't necessarily require mobile gear.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ken McDonald]

Thank you, Ms. Jones.

We'll now go to Madame Desbiens for six minutes or less, please.

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

Mr. Chair, on a point of order, I'm not sure if I was the only one, and maybe there are other witnesses, but I was not able to see Minister Byrne when he was talking. I'm not sure if I was the only one, but I was not able to see him on the screen when he was responding to Ms. Jones.