Fisheries Committee on Feb. 17th, 2022

[Neil Davis]

Certainly, and the member is quite right, this has been an important issue.

We have a very well-established advisory process with the recreational fishing sector called the sport fishing advisory board, which is a coastwide process supported by numerous local level committees called sport fishing advisory committees. They offer an opportunity for all those who have an interest, or that participate in the recreational fishery, to provide the department with advice, and for us to discuss our management approaches with them.

Specific to recreational fishing opportunities on the south coast, as the member is probably aware, there have been some fairly serious concerns around the status of salmon stocks, in particular, that have led to restrictions and constrained fishing opportunities. That does pose challenges to the sector, and we use that process to review our plans with them.

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

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ken McDonald]

Thank you, Ms. Barron.

We'll now go to Madame Desbiens, for two and a half minutes, please.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I'd just like to make a brief comment. I heard earlier that the department was working with fishers on traceability. However, the people I know in the industry tell me that fishers were never consulted on this. Only members of the Regroupement des pêcheurs professionnels de homard du sud de la Gaspésie keep an electronic logbook and place a medallion of origin on lobster. So I'm a little confused.

Let me tell you a quick story. My father is a restaurant owner. We are in L'Isle‑aux‑Coudres, and we make it a point to serve fish from our region, ideally from Quebec, if not the Maritimes. One day, we bought some frozen cod, which was presented to us as a product of Quebec. My father opens one of the boxes and finds a little paper inside saying “Russian cod”. My father has no hair, but if he did, it would have made his hair stand on end. He took the boxes of cod, worth $560, and threw them in the garbage. Indeed, it is inconceivable for us to serve cod from elsewhere.

How can you explain that, today, in 2022, we aren't able to have priority access to products from Quebec and Canada, before finding ourselves having to buy products from elsewhere?

[Timothy Sargent]

I agree that we absolutely need this initiative. As I was saying earlier, we're working with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and other partners to implement this.

If there are any groups that have something to say and would like to contact us or the agency to express their views, we would be very pleased to hear from them.

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

In the immediate term, what could enable us to buy local products?

I went to the Gaspé and asked the restaurant owners if they served local fish. They told me that they did not, that local fish was being exported to other countries and that they were serving us rosefish from this or that country. It doesn't make sense.

What is the first thing you propose to do? I know that steps are being taken, but what urgently needs to be done to solve this problem?

[Timothy Sargent]

I fully agree that this is an issue.

Building our brand is important for Canada and its provinces. I believe our brand is highly respected around the world.

That said, it's really the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and the provinces that are responsible for managing the traceability of fish from the moment they leave the boat.

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

That's why it's important that there be communication between—

[The Chair, Liberal, Ken McDonald]

I'm sorry, Madame Desbiens. Your time has gone a bit over.

We'll now go back to Ms. Barron, for two and a half minutes, please.

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

Thank you, Chair.

I'll leave this open to whomever is best to respond. That might be easier.

My question is around a major concern I'm hearing from many of the leading voices, like former chief and chair of the First Nations Wild Salmon Alliance, Bob Chamberlin. The key concern is around the government's Pacific salmon initiatives, specifically that the DFO is not providing long-term stable funding for projects throughout the life cycle of salmon. Constituents are worried about the future of salmon. There's uncertainty, when funding doesn't match this life cycle.

Could you share, with this emergency in mind, why funding isn't matching the long-term needs of these salmon populations?

[Timothy Sargent]

Generally, when we provide funding, we do it for a limited period. It's often for specific projects that are time limited. In some cases, we have an ongoing relationship with a group where we provide a certain amount of money for a certain period. We evaluate how well that money has been spent, and then we can come back and give them more money later. There are many reasons why we don't give open-ended money.

The reality is that salmon stocks live for four to five years before they come back. Sometimes the kinds of projects we need to institute in order to help them don't necessarily take that long. Habitat restoration is a good example. There's no necessary need to match the lifespan of a salmon with the lifespan of the money.

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

Thank you.

What I'm hearing is that there are concerns that it's challenging to plan projects without funding that goes longer term so perhaps that's something to consider for the future.

We know that the Pacific salmon strategy initiative is the government's main plan to help declining wild Pacific salmon populations and a key pillar of the strategy is the transformation of the harvesters and the retirement of licences. Workers in the commercial fisheries should have the support they need to depart the industry with dignity, and that's not what we're seeing unfortunately. They need the tools that they need to succeed elsewhere if we are transitioning these workers.

Will we see an emergency and transitional plan put in place for workers who are leaving this industry?

[Timothy Sargent]

The government has a wide range of programs, particularly under EI part II, that provide benefits for retraining and reskilling of the kind that might be required here.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ken McDonald]

We'll now go to Mr. Zimmer for five minutes or less please.

[Bob Zimmer, Conservative, Prince George—Peace River—Northern Rockies, BC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and I'll be splitting my time.

I have one question in reference to what I asked before. I asked the minister about the pilot program in B.C. for a mark-selective fishery.

We've heard many times before from department officials, we've seen the Cohen commission and I've been asking this question for the last several years. I've always been hearing this thing that's like a cloud in the sky and it's supposed to happen but it never seems to ever have substance. What does the pilot program look like and who's involved?

I'll say this as a final statement: There is the group that somebody just quoted, the SFAB, the sport fishing advisory board, and all the groups that have actually provided science to DFO, science that has actually been completely disregarded in the past. This is the same group that should be being tasked with the pilot program, involved in the pilot program, but it doesn't even know about the program, hasn't been given dates and hasn't been given any information about what this is supposed to look like.

I'll preface my question with that information, so please answer.

[Timothy Sargent]

I think, Neil, you're best placed to take this one on.

[Neil Davis]

Certainly, Deputy.

As the member may be aware, last year we did receive a series of proposals for mark-selective fisheries from the SFAB, so they were very involved in putting those together. The department reviewed those with input from science but also giving consideration to things like whether the proposals would implicate FSC access for first nations, and made decisions that, quite frankly, were very risk-averse, given the status of stocks in southern B.C., not just those in the Fraser but also others.

We've had now COSEWIC assessments done on I think upwards of 30 chinooks stocks as well as sockeye stocks—

[Bob Zimmer, Conservative, Prince George—Peace River—Northern Rockies, BC]

Can you get to pilot program, please?

I just want to know what the pilot program is because that's what my question was. I already know what was done last year and what wasn't done.

[Neil Davis]

We've implemented some of those mark-selective fishery proposals. We, also under the PSSI, have identified that the expansion of mass marking and mark-selective fisheries is one of the things we would like to explore. In that vein—

[Bob Zimmer, Conservative, Prince George—Peace River—Northern Rockies, BC]

I'm going to stop you right there, “like to explore” is more of this cloud in the sky talk. Frankly, we've been talking about this for the last 20 years and to hear more talk about this.... I want to hear detailed plans. I already heard that the pilot program was happening this year, and that's what I'm asking for detail on.

I'm going to pass the rest of my time to Mr. Perkins, but I'd like a detailed report of this pilot program provided to the committee.

Thank you.

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

Mr. Chair, how much time is there?

[The Chair, Liberal, Ken McDonald]

You have two minutes and 15 seconds.

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

Okay. Thank you again, Mr. Chair.

I have a couple of questions. I've had a number of fishing groups in Nova Scotia provide ATIPs to DFO, and the department has, over the last few months, edited them and sent them back before processing them. When those groups refused to accept the edit and put those ATIPs back in as originally written, the ATIP division of DFO said we're closing it and not answering these.

Is that a normal practice?

[Timothy Sargent]

I'm not familiar with these specific ATIPs so I'm not going to be able to answer that one.

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

I'll send them over to you afterwards. Thank you.

I raised this in the meeting we had with the minister some time ago and left a letter on the issue of the elver fishery, for which, while I got a general response, I'm still awaiting for a specific response back.

Elver fishermen in my riding, as you know, have had a proposal in for elver licences and a processing facility in my riding for the last two years in partnership with the Acadia First Nation. They were told recently, according to them, that they won't be getting any licences and that any new elver licences will only go to first nations, some of whom haven't even asked for them.

Could you comment on what the status of issuing new elver licences is in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick?