Fisheries Committee on March 1st, 2022

[Kurtis Hayne]

Oh, I'm sorry. I think it will take the participation of those importers and industry. This is not unique to just imports; it also applies to domestic seafood.

An important consideration you raised is the possibility that domestically caught seafood is exported only for reimport after processing, so domestic seafood could be processed overseas. I think it's important that you have some of the importers and exporters of various sizes involved in those conversations. Industry and all major players should be involved and consulted in this, because there are some significant.... There are complexities.

[Ken Hardie, Liberal, Fleetwood—Port Kells, BC]

I understand that, Mr. Hayne, but I'm talking about government oversight here. The voluntary stuff, yes, okay, works to a certain degree, but we know that can be gamed. Who, in addition to the CFIA, on the federal side should be involved in monitoring where the fish is coming from when it's coming into Canada? Does anybody else have a thought on that?

[Kurtis Hayne]

I'll leave it to others.

What I would say is that the verification systems are incredibly important. If bad information or incorrect information is entered into a traceability system, you can have bad information at the end. Those verification systems are incredibly important.

I'll leave it to one of the other witnesses.

[Ken Hardie, Liberal, Fleetwood—Port Kells, BC]

Mr. MacPherson.

[Ian MacPherson]

Mr. Hardie, I was just going to mention that it's very important that DFO be involved. They're primarily who the harvesting sector deals with.

I just want to quickly go back to this question on—

[Ken Hardie, Liberal, Fleetwood—Port Kells, BC]

You're missing my point. I'm talking about imports to Canada, not fish that's caught domestically. I'm getting blank stares here, so there's obviously a gap.

[Christina Callegari]

Sir, I was just going to add that I think the Canadian Border Services Agency would be an important federal government department that would be involved in this as well.

[Ken Hardie, Liberal, Fleetwood—Port Kells, BC]

One last question—

[The Chair, Liberal, Ken McDonald]

Thank you, Mr. Hardie. That was your last question for today.

I know we're getting pretty close on time. We probably have about two minutes left in the time allotted.

I don't know if Mr. Caron has a question he'd like to get in.

[Jean-Denis Garon, Bloc, Mirabel, QC]

I'd be happy to. I wouldn't want to deprive you of that pleasure, Mr. Chair.

Ms. Callegari, in your report and in your comments, you frequently suggested setting up a group of federal government experts whose mandate would be to monitor traceability and labelling.

What do you think about the idea of appointing a traceability and labelling commissioner who could, to some degree, oversee all of the federal government's monitoring activities?

And if you are in favour of this proposal, what would its mandate be exactly?

[Christina Callegari]

To keep it short, because I know we don't have too much time, yes, I think that could be an option to explore. I definitely think that having a specific committee or group of individuals, or a commissioner as you mentioned, will be important to move this forward and to make sure that it happens in a timely manner as well.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ken McDonald]

Ms. Barron, do you want to get in a quick question before I hit the hammer?

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

Always. I will try my best to make it quick.

The question is specifically for either Ms. Aylward or Mr. MacPherson.

I appreciate how helpful it is to have active members of our fishing community here in these studies. I was wondering if you can speak a bit more about ensuring that commercial fishers are involved in these conversations, and the priorities you'd like to see to solve some of these challenges. Clearly, that's a very quick question, but maybe a point or two would be helpful.

[Ian MacPherson]

It's vital. Just to look back to Mr. Small's question there about right whales and the measures of harvesters, harvesters need to be heard on this.

There are options out there, and some of them are incredibly expensive, so we need to do what works and what makes sense. That is just one specific example of how the voices of harvesters need to be heard.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ken McDonald]

Thank you, everyone, for your co-operation today.

That concludes our questioning. A big thank you to our witnesses for taking the time to appear before committee today, albeit by Zoom.

On a note from Mr. Hardie on Icewater Seafoods, I want to congratulate Mr. Alberto Wareham for taking that initiative not to import any more Russian cod in recognition of what's going on in Ukraine. That particular fish plant operates almost year round and processes cod. That's the only product that it does, and it supplies product all over the world, so good on him for having that initiative. He should be congratulated.

Thank you, everyone. The meeting is adjourned.