Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you to everyone here for the opportunity to speak today.
My name is Peter Warris. I'm the director of projects and industry liaison with the P.E.I aquaculture industry.
Briefly, the aquaculture industry on P.E.I is a farming industry that produces seafood. It's not a fishery. That's a key difference I want to highlight. P.E.I is the largest mussel producer in North America. It's the largest oyster producer on the eastern shore of Canada.
Our farmers have invested thousands of dollars in infrastructure for their leases, which cannot be removed prior to this type of storm. There are hundreds of lines and thousands of cages or stocks on a farm. They can only be sunk to get them out of the way of this kind of weather. Obviously, the animals that they are farming need to remain in the water in order to survive.
Estimates for the damages to the aquaculture industry on P.E.I include the following: mortality and loss of market-ready shellfish, which are going to cause immediate product shortages, reduced exports and loss of income to the harvesters; loss of mussel and oyster seed, which are the juvenile animals that are our livestock for the next two to four years, and therefore the impacts are going to be carried forward and affect exports and potentially market shares into the future; and lease infrastructure that has been damaged or swept away, including ropes, buoys, anchors, cages, etc.
Shore-based infrastructure, including buildings, launch points and wharves, has been damaged. As well, for our land-based fin fish farms, significant quantities of fuel needed to be used for their backup power generators, without which we would have seen much higher losses in terms of stock.
Based on the feedback we've received so far, in partnership with the province and DFO locally, we're estimating at the moment that we're looking at about $74 million in terms of damages. That's going to continue through the winter. It will probably be months before we have a final figure on that. Right now a lot of gear is being sunk or is ready for the ice to come in. We might not be seeing the level of mortality until the spring.
What does the aquaculture industry need in an immediate sense?
Smaller farms will, hopefully, be covered under the existing provincial disaster financial assistance program. We've been helping our members complete the application with the Red Cross. However, that program at the moment is capped at $200,000. For many of those, that's not high enough. We would like to see that cap increased, potentially up to the full $2 million.
They need to know if they are eligible for compensation, including for replacement of lost and damaged gear and lease infrastructure, for loss of market crop and seed, for the labour that's been involved in the cleanup, and for the cost of rebuilding.
We have larger companies that are not eligible for the existing program because they have more than 20 employees but that still suffered significant damages. We would like to see a separate program being developed, possibly with ACOA.
Looking further into the future, there are no reasonable insurance programs available for the aquaculture sector at this time. Again, aquaculture is a farming industry. Our members need support just as other Canadian farmers do. We would like to see those types of supports led by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, which understand farmers' needs. Some potentially suitable support programs such as that for business risk management, already exist under the established Canadian agricultural partnership. We would like to see aquaculture being made eligible to participate in those types of programs.
Another point is looking at the future planning. For a lot of the wharves and small craft harbours that were damaged it's difficult to assess the future needs with respect to those types of infrastructure when aquaculture vessels are not counted or considered currently under small craft harbours. They are not actually considered part of the core fleet even though in many cases, our members' boats are using those wharves more and for longer periods of time than the fishing vessels are.
In order to know what Canada's future marine infrastructure needs are, everyone must be included as part of those consultations. We'd like to see aquaculture vessels acknowledged as official users of small craft harbours.
Thank you again for your time today.