Thank you very much for having me here today.
For those who don't know me, I am currently an independent contractor, and I am here in one of my roles as a senior policy adviser for fisheries with Ecotrust Canada.
I have spent 25 years looking at ways to realize fair, sustainable and prosperous fisheries, and I believe that fisheries, as a renewable resource, can be well managed for environmental, economic, cultural and social objectives.
Since we are here on the subject of science I want to start by saying that, though I have engaged in many scientific pursuits throughout my career, I am not a scientist by trade and I have a deep respect for those who are. Today I am an outlier in that I am focusing on the role of social science in fisheries management and the issue with the lack of focus and capacity on this. My area of work is on the west coast.
Many challenges face Pacific region fisheries—climate change, competition for space and species, species at risk, market shifts—you name it. Science is instrumental for identifying, monitoring and resolving issues that arise from this complexity, but how do we prioritize scientific activities, build investment in these priorities and leverage our findings? We first must have a policy framework that includes clear objectives across the full spectrum of societal priorities, and we must have a framework for science that supports these.
The natural sciences are, of course, a critical and huge part of this, but practised in isolation it is not enough to get us where we want to go, just like focusing our economists solely on big-E economic metrics like GDP will not get us where we want to go.
Where do we want to go? What are we measuring success against?
For the most part, existing language is around economic prosperity and conservation, but for whom, at what geographic scale and at what timescale? Do we have consistent objectives around social and cultural outcomes and community well-being and health? I would argue that we could do much better at defining this, especially in the Pacific region where we are lacking in a comprehensive policy framework that identifies clear objectives with little to no direction given on social, locally economically relevant and cultural outcomes.
We do have a number of resources that identify key considerations for fisheries in Canada and many of them do touch on the socio-economic and cultural importance of them. In this committee's 2019 study on the subject of west coast fisheries, it was pointed out that key priorities of a sustainable fishery include the environmental, economic and social aspects of sustainable development and that there is a need for explicit socio-economic objectives and policies. Further, this study recommended that DFO collect socio-economic data to inform regulation.
Most recently in the report titled “Engaging on Canada’s Blue Economy Strategy—What we heard”, social equity, cultural and local economic considerations were raised many times as a priority, including in fisheries.
The latest Fisheries Act itself states that the minister may consider, among other things, social, economic and cultural factors in the management of fisheries, but how is the minister to consider socio-economic impacts and outcomes if we have no science to base those considerations on? There needs to be a way to provide both natural and social science and intersect these findings, not compartmentalize them.
It just so happens that we do have a start to this, as the Canadian Fisheries Research Network developed one. This 50-person team's six years' of research was published in two major peer-reviewed publications. The network recognized four pillars of sustainability—ecological, economic, socio-cultural and institutional or governance—and developed a full framework that articulates the scope and candidate objectives and values of these four pillars. This sounds like a great start.
Let me be clear. This is not an argument meant to alter scientific priorities to diminish necessary outcomes around conservation—quite the contrary. It is to ensure that where decision-making has the potential to achieve conservation outcomes and maximize societal benefits, this is enabled. The absence of this focus results in unnecessarily harmful policy, which can take decades to unravel.
Take the example of licensing policy outcomes in the sea cucumber fishery. In this lucrative fishery the lion's share of landed value is not going to the harvesters, but is being lost to, in many cases, non-local licence owners and fish companies leasing a licence, who land and sell their product and then pay the fish harvester a fraction of the fair landed price. Further, this species has the ability to provide high value in processing jobs and wholesale margins, yet this also is being exported.
Science can investigate issues such as this, compare scenarios around solutions for decision-making that achieve environmental goals and maximize societal benefits. We are in precarious times. We require new ways of doing business and innovation in our economic system that ensures we are contributing to a better quality of life for current and future generations, and promoting resilience in the natural and social systems we rely on.
This is ever-challenging in the face of disastrous events, such as pandemics and climate change impacts, which can bring our current system to its knees. We must be able to respond quickly and adapt in times of crisis. It is more crucial than ever to manage our renewable resources to this end. This requires a comprehensive multipillared approach to science and informed decision-making, but will result in a much stronger foundation on which to move forward in sustainable development.
Thank you very much for the opportunity to share my thoughts and experience with you.