Fisheries Committee on Dec. 4th, 2024

[Rick Perkins, Conservative, South Shore—St. Margarets, NS]

I would certainly, Mr. Chair, if he would be relevant.

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

It's relevant, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ken McDonald]

Continue, Mr. Cormier.

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

They should do like their colleagues did for housing projects and write a letter to Minister Lebouthillier to ask for support for their projects. However, there's no way they can because they will be punished by their leader, Mr. Poilievre.

With that, let's start with some questions.

Mr. Pelletier, I just want to get some clarification regarding the Coast Guard and the money you need.

You know that we need your staff to have an earlier fishing season in our regions, before the whales arrive.

I don't want to alarm the associations or anything, but what would it mean if you didn't have that additional money? Could that compromise icebreaking operations or hovercraft operations, for example? Can you comment on that?

[Mario Pelletier]

I'll just comment on the fuel side. Icebreakers are the ones that consume the most. Icebreaking operations also require a lot. Without that extra money, we won't be able to put fuel in the icebreakers this winter.

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

Earlier, you said that the employees' pay might not be paid either. So there would be no staff on the ships.

[Mario Pelletier]

As for employees, it's more a question of increasing the workforce. The new ships, which will be equipped with new technologies, will require different skills. This new money would enable us to recruit the right talent today, before the new ships arrive.

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

Thank you, Mr. Pelletier. I think the people from the associations are also very pleased with the efforts that have been made in recent years, so let's hope that things will go well this year and that we'll have this additional money.

Ms. Gibbons, people are all very happy to have received additional money for small craft harbours, but something isn't right when it comes to the allocation of those funds. It takes an enormous amount of time for some projects to get under way. I asked Adam Burns this question the last time he appeared before the committee.

Can you explain the process a little bit? For example, if a dredging project in a certain riding receives money from Fisheries and Oceans Canada, what happens then? Who authorizes the digging? It seems to take a long time. Unfortunately, some projects aren't moving forward quickly enough, which jeopardizes the safety of our fishers. Can you tell us a bit about how things are going?

Also, could you try to talk to each other between departments so that things move more quickly?

[Annette Gibbons]

Thank you for the question.

There's a lot of planning, at various stages. First of all, fairly general planning will be done, where we will determine whether a port needs to be completely rebuilt, for example, or whether a wharf just needs to be repaired. Once we know the amount of money to be received, we have to plan the timeline. It will depend a lot on the decisions that have been made about prioritizing projects, but we also take into consideration the status of the necessary in‑depth studies, in engineering, for example. Our engineers have to be ready to tell us exactly what needs to be done.

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

Ms. Gibbons, permits have already been granted for certain regions, for certain channel dredgings in particular. It seems to take a huge amount of money.

I won't blame you, but it seems that the problem lies with Environment Canada. Can you confirm that? It takes a long time.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ken McDonald]

I'm sorry, Mr. Cormier. Your time is up.

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

I would like to ask for a written response on that, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ken McDonald]

Mr. Cormier, your time has expired.

We'll now go to Madame Desbiens for two and a half minutes or less.

[Caroline Desbiens, Bloc, Beauport—Côte-de-Beaupré—Île d’Orléans—Charlevoix, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I didn't put my timer on, so you'll let me know.

I'm going to ask you a question about our indigenous communities. Hundreds of millions of dollars are being invested in truth and reconciliation. There's a lot of money allocated to indigenous people, but we wonder if it gets to them, for the simple reason that here at the committee, we spend our time hearing from witnesses who deplore the fact that they don't have the means and that their skills, knowledge and science on the ground aren't being considered.

I sometimes get the impression that money isn't going to restore this kind of nation-to-nation equity relationship with indigenous peoples. Millions of dollars won't solve the problem, but rather it will involve a way of addressing the land issue with them.

Within this framework, scientists who are more inclined to the social sciences and humanities could study, particularly on sociological and psychological levels, the relationship between nations, and the relationship between indigenous peoples and government bodies.

Is that something that could be built into a budget? Could that aspect really be targeted to establish a better use of the money invested?

[Annette Gibbons]

Those who receive funding allocated to indigenous communities are indigenous communities. That's clear. No one else is receiving those funds.

In terms of how we work together, sometimes we give money for a fishing boat, sometimes the money goes to further foster collaboration. In the latter case, the money the communities are asking us for will be used to build their capacity to work with the department. If, for example, they want indigenous traditional knowledge to be applied, they will want to have funding to pay people in their community who will do this kind of work together with the department, whether it be fisheries management or marine ecosystem conservation, for example. This is often referred to as capacity-building funding. This is something that communities are asking us for.

In our relationships with communities, we try to focus on their interests and know what is important to them in terms of fishing and ecosystem conservation, for example. We try to meet them where they're at and satisfy their interests, as opposed to having targets set by the department.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ken McDonald]

Thank you. I have to cut you off there. You've gone a bit over.

Ms. Barron, you have two and a half minutes or less.

[Lisa Marie Barron, NDP, Nanaimo—Ladysmith, BC]

Thank you, Chair.

Witnesses, thank you again for your answers and for being here.

On March 7, I sent a letter to Minister Lebouthillier. In this letter, I was reaffirming some of the concerns of the B.C. Wildlife Federation, in particular around whirling disease. We know there have been several confirmed cases in B.C. lakes and waterways, and the BCWF, at that time, was urging a request for information on the department's plans to eradicate this parasite. They're warning that this critical fish species, which is threatened and endangered, would be completely wiped out if this problem was left unchecked. I received a response from the minister that basically redirected me to, at that time, Minister Holland.

The bigger question here is this: Is this still a problem that we should be worried about? I've seen the impacts of this disease, and they're not very nice to look at. What's being done to ensure, through the budget we're talking about today, that we don't see it being spread?

[Annette Gibbons]

I would answer in general that we work with the CFIA and with the provinces on helping to manage disease. DFO plays a part, but we're not always a central player.

I cannot give you a detailed brief on whirling disease today, but I'm happy to come back with more detail.

[Lisa Marie Barron, NDP, Nanaimo—Ladysmith, BC]

Can you give any updates about the continued ship-breaking happening in Union Bay that's polluting the surrounding marine ecosystem? Is anything happening with that? Is any funding being allocated to ensure that we have environmentally sound ship-breaking happening with proper procedures in place to protect our environment?

[Annette Gibbons]

This is an activity that touches a bunch of different departments, and the province as well. DFO plays a role. The Coast Guard plays a role. However, the core role of that activity, because most of it is on land, is really with the province.

I'm not sure about the exact name of the event, but there was an event about a month or six weeks ago where federal officials from Transport, ECCC and DFO participated in a sort of all-day session with community members expressing their views on that activity. We had officials there to answer questions.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ken McDonald]

Thank you, Ms. Barron. Your time is up. You were a bit over.

That concludes our rounds of questioning.

I want to thank Mr. Burns, Mr. O'Dea, Mr. Goodyear, Mr. Pelletier and Madam Gibbons.

[Rick Perkins, Conservative, South Shore—St. Margarets, NS]

We still have 10 minutes.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ken McDonald]

We have votes to do on the supplementary estimates. We only have until 6:30.

[Rick Perkins, Conservative, South Shore—St. Margarets, NS]

I have a point of order.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ken McDonald]

You can raise a point of order.