Good morning. Thank you to the chair for this opportunity to address the panel.
I'm a professor at the Department of Integrative Biology at the University of Guelph.
I would just like to open by saying that Canada's fisheries are important contributors to the ecological, socio-economic and cultural fabric of our nation. However, the integrity of our domestic seafood supply chain is being eroded by poor organization and transparency in fisheries data reporting and market labelling.
The CFIA fish list and Canada's seafood labelling regulations in general are largely inconsistent with the legal tenets of Canadian policy to ensure that fish names have reliable scientific underpinnings to uphold fair market practices and to not mislead consumers.
Canada has recently ratified the Port State Measures agreement to combat illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing. Thus, it is appropriate and timely that the country proceed to modernize its seafood-labelling and data-reporting requirements as part of the shift towards transparency.
Government agencies should improve the reporting of fishery production and trade statistics by necessitating species-level classifications.
Canada's labelling legislation should be aligned with that of the European Union in mandating scientific names on seafood products along with additional criteria concerning geographic origin, processing history, and production and harvest methods to promote consumer choice and effective boat-to-plate traceability. This legislation should be enforced.
Overall, these improvements in taxonomic granularity and accurate information-sharing should provide a foundation of enhanced resolution from which to evaluate patterns of domestic species exploitation and tailor sound management and conservation plans.
Thank you.