Evidence of meeting #122 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 stock.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ken McDonald
Thank you, Mr. Arnold.
We'll now go to Mr. Morrissey to end off.
You have five minutes or less, please.
Liberal
Bobby Morrissey Liberal Egmont, PE
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
My question is for Mr. Bonnell.
Could you outline to the committee the importance of having NAFO as part of the decision-making agreement process, going forward, as it relates to the cod fishery and the importance of managing that resource in Newfoundland and off Newfoundland?
Vice-President, Sustainability and Engagement, Ocean Choice International
I'm certainly not here to do the bidding of NAFO for them. I'd like nothing better today than to have the NAFO-related quotas be repatriated to Canada and to have us be able to fish them. However, we're a country of rules, laws and international agreements. Those exist, and we have to abide by them.
I've been participating in NAFO meetings for the last six or seven years that I've been with Ocean Choice International. I wasn't part of the historical side of this; I went to one meeting in the early 2000s. I think what I will say is that NAFO is managed much better today, obviously, than it was a generation ago, and there are a lot of measures in place as deterrents today that weren't in place a long time ago.
Liberal
Bobby Morrissey Liberal Egmont, PE
Is it fair to say that this will lead to better management of the fishery on Canada's controlled east coast?
Vice-President, Sustainability and Engagement, Ocean Choice International
Yes, it's fair to say that there is better management today, certainly, than in the period leading up to and during the moratorium years.
Liberal
Bobby Morrissey Liberal Egmont, PE
Could you expand a bit on that?
I didn't realize it's 5%. For those who may not be totally familiar with this, the catch rate you're exploiting is 5% of the biomass.
Vice-President, Sustainability and Engagement, Ocean Choice International
Are you referring to the NAFO component here or the exploitation rates?
Liberal
Vice-President, Sustainability and Engagement, Ocean Choice International
Yes, it's 5% of the spawning stock biomass, basically.
October 21st, 2024 / 11:45 a.m.
Liberal
Vice-President, Sustainability and Engagement, Ocean Choice International
That's the harvest rate, which is a very conservative harvest rate by any standard or metric.
Liberal
Bobby Morrissey Liberal Egmont, PE
I agree with you, and I'm pleased to see that we're managing, in this particular prudent manner, to grow the fishery, going forward.
The public sometimes confuses inshore and offshore—with offshore being foreign—but both Mr. Warren and Mr. Bonnell referenced both identities.
Are you family-owned out of Newfoundland?
Vice-President, Sustainability and Engagement, Ocean Choice International
There was a comment, I think, at one of the hearings about our having non-Canadian, foreign workers offshore. We are 100% Canadian-owned, Newfoundland and Labrador-based businesses. One of the businesses that's not here today is indigenous. The Labrador Innu purchased the Harbour Grace Shrimp Company. We employ Newfoundlanders and Labradorians. Our vessel is exclusively employed by Canadians who are almost exclusively Newfoundlanders and Labradorians. They live in the same communities as inshore fishermen. In some cases, they're family members of inshore fishermen.
That is an important point and needs to be clarified. We are very much Newfoundland and Labrador-based. We're not publicly traded companies, which somebody in a previous hearing alluded to. We're family-run businesses.
Alberto, you can speak about that as well, if you wish.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Icewater Seafoods Inc.
Icewater is a family-owned business as well. I'm the seventh generation of my family in the cod business in Placentia Bay. My son came in five years ago as the eighth.
Liberal
Bobby Morrissey Liberal Egmont, PE
There have been seven generations of your family in Newfoundland.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Icewater Seafoods Inc.
In Placentia Bay, in cod....
Liberal
Bobby Morrissey Liberal Egmont, PE
Mr. Wareham, you referenced your Arnold's Cove plant in relation to managing your resources 12 months of the year. If you have to supply the market, you depend on an offshore quota to do that. Am I correct in that assumption?
Liberal
Bobby Morrissey Liberal Egmont, PE
Okay. Does managing supply to the plant have an impact on providing predictable employment on a year-round basis? I believe you touched on that briefly.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Icewater Seafoods Inc.
That's where frozen-at-sea raw material comes in. This year, as I said, we hope it will all be—
Liberal
President and Chief Executive Officer, Icewater Seafoods Inc.
No. The cod migrate to the inshore in late June or early July. They start going back to the offshore in late September or October.
Liberal
Bobby Morrissey Liberal Egmont, PE
How would both of you react to this comment?
The government has “completely and utterly failed our province [of Newfoundland] and the recovery of the great Northern cod stock” with the decision made this summer.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Icewater Seafoods Inc.
In my opening comments, I talked about the importance of that decision for Arnold's Cove, the markets we have and our employees.
Liberal