Fisheries Committee on March 27th, 2023

[Dave Epp, Conservative, Chatham-Kent—Leamington, ON]

Then have the agreed-upon amounts for 2023 been set? The budget has not been, because the commission has not met since November of 2022.

[Richard Goodyear]

In response to that question, the funding is available. It's now in the hands of the GLFC to determine its budget going forward. Of course, it's not DFO's business in terms of setting the budget for GLFC, but in terms of funding available, all the funds that are required from a Canadian perspective are available.

[Dave Epp, Conservative, Chatham-Kent—Leamington, ON]

Have the funds that the minister alluded to, the $300,000; been approved by the commission—the withhold?

[Richard Goodyear]

The question with respect to the funds that the minister referred to is about funds that were provided to PSPC and SSC before before being provided to DFO in fiscal year 2022-23. Going forward, we're going to work with central agencies, as the minister mentioned, to ensure that the entirety of the $8.9 million will be provided to the GLFC as identified—

[Dave Epp, Conservative, Chatham-Kent—Leamington, ON]

On what authority did you withhold, then, for this past budget? Parliament passed the budget back in 2022. Parliament supersedes that authority, does it not?

[Richard Goodyear]

I'm sorry. Which fiscal year are you referring to?

[Dave Epp, Conservative, Chatham-Kent—Leamington, ON]

It's last year: Your note of November 29 to the commission identified $5.8 million that DFO was going to unilaterally withhold.

With that, I'll follow up.

It seems that the DFO is in a clear conflict-of-duties situation. It may even be possible that the DFO's actions on the GLFC's budget represent a breach of its fiduciary duty to the commission via Canada's appointed commissioners. These are serious and ethical lapses that may violate Treasury Board rules and the privileges and and immunities of the binational body, as they undermine our credibility with our U.S. partners.

Mr. Chair, at this point, I would like to move a motion, as follows:

Whereas the Department of Fisheries and Oceans appears to be in a structural conflict of interest/conflict of duties situation concerning their relationships with the Great Lakes Fishery Commission; and

Whereas the Department of Fisheries and Oceans appears to be confusing their role as a contractor OF the Great Lakes Fishery Commission, with their function as the portfolio administrator ([of the] machinery of government source) of the Canada/US Convention-based organization; and

Whereas the Department of Fisheries and Oceans is providing the Machinery of Government functions by which funding is provided from Parliament TO the Great Lakes Fisheries Commission via the Treasury Board; and,

Whereas, the full funding allocated in Canada's 2022 Spring budget, consistent with our obligations under the 1954 Convention on Great Lakes Fisheries, was not fully transferred to the Great Lakes Fisheries Commission, without holdback, [and] in compliance with the terms of the binational Convention;

Be it resolved that the Committee directs the Chair to undertake all parliamentary efforts and steps necessary to formally ask the Auditor General of Canada to undertake a governance and conflict of interest/duties audit into the Department of Fisheries and Oceans with respect to its role as the Machinery of Government Agent for the Great Lakes Fishery Commission, and for the execution of Canada's commitments under the 1954 Convention on Great Lakes Fisheries; and determine if Global Affairs Canada would be a more appropriate agent to provide conflict-free support and to function as the Machinery of Government source for the Great Lakes Fishery Commission.

I so move, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ken McDonald]

Thank you, Mr. Epp.

I see a hand waving in the distance.

I will ask the clerk if this motion has been provided to members of the committee in both official languages.

Mr. Kelloway, I know that you had your hand up, but I'd like the clerk to advise us on that first, please.

[The Clerk of the Committee, Ms. Christine Sing]

Yes, the motion has been distributed in both official languages.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ken McDonald]

Thank you for that.

Go ahead, Mr. Kelloway.

[Mike Kelloway, Liberal, Cape Breton—Canso, NS]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thanks to the member opposite.

Given the fact that we have the minister here and that we just received the motion about 10 minutes ago, I move that we adjourn debate.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ken McDonald]

We have a motion to adjourn debate, which I believe is non-debatable.

I'll ask the clerk to record the vote, please.

(Motion agreed to: yeas 6; nays 5)

[The Chair, Liberal, Ken McDonald]

The motion to adjourn debate has passed. It will stay on the Order Paper for the next meeting and be dealt with at that time.

I want to remind members that we have a hard stop for the House resources at 1:02 p.m. We won't have any resources to run beyond that point.

We should get to the votes on the actual main estimates, because there are only four minutes left.

I'll allow the minister and her officials to leave at their convenience as we do the votes on the main estimates.

Okay. We'll move on.

I believe Madame Desbiens had her hand up.

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

Will we be receiving the motion by email, Mr. Chair?

[The Chair, Liberal, Ken McDonald]

It will be distributed by email afterwards, if you haven't already got it, in both official languages.

I would like to remind everyone that this will remain on the Order Paper, and any member of the committee can bring it up at a subsequent meeting of the committee.

Of course, now I have the main estimates. As I said earlier, we could have up to three votes. All three votes were referred to the committee in the main estimates.

Unless there is any objection, I will seek the unanimous consent of the committee to group the votes together for a decision.

Is there unanimous consent to proceed in this way, or do you want each one done separately?

[Mel Arnold, Conservative, North Okanagan—Shuswap, BC]

We are good with grouping them, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ken McDonald]

Okay. If we have that, we'll move on.

DEPARTMENT OF FISHERIES AND OCEANS

Vote 1—Operating expenditures..........$2,010,994,201

Vote 5—Capital expenditures..........$1,381,611,297

Vote 10—Grants and contributions..........$532,401,762

(Votes 1, 5 and 10 agreed to on division)

Shall I report the votes back to the House?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[An hon. member]

On division.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ken McDonald]

We will continue our study on pinnipeds on Thursday.

I want to recognize and thank the minister and her staff for appearing before the committee today, even though they are not in the room now. Hopefully, they'll know that we did thank them for that.

I wish to thank everybody for making this such a great meeting today. I apologize, again, for not being there in person. I want to thank the clerk, the analyst, the translation team and all the table staff for all their help in making this meeting such a success.

Hopefully, we'll see each other on Thursday.

The meeting is adjourned.