Thank you, Chair.
Good day, committee members. Thank you for the opportunity to appear before your committee again and to contribute to your study on illegal fishing.
For most of my time in DFO, I was working in the area of conservation and protection, or C and P. I started as a river guardian and worked at all levels in the organization, as a fishery officer, a supervisor and a manager, and then as director of C and P for the Newfoundland and Labrador region. As director, I was part of the national executive team for C and P and contributed to program development and management across the country. As director in St. John's, I was responsible for Canada's offshore monitoring and compliance program, protecting our 200-mile limit as well as the straddling stocks. While I was the director, we developed and implemented the vessel monitoring system and the leading forensic investigation capacity in the country. Later, as regional director general in Moncton and Halifax, I was responsible for C and P in the maritime provinces.
Illegal fishing is most often driven by the profit motive—to make money—and occurs in the commercial fishery in primarily two ways. The first is to cheat on quotas or enterprise allocations and land more fish than permitted by the licence. This is prevalent in such high-value fisheries as crab and halibut. The second common objective is to avoid taxation. This occurs in such high-value fisheries as lobster. While there is no quota to abide by, there is a significant incentive to not report all catch and to avoid being taxed on the income.
Illegal fishing is also done by people who are not licensed to fish. Sometimes they do that to sell fish, such as salmon, illegally, or it's for their own food. In some cases, people who don’t need the food just want to poach salmon, as an example. Perhaps they're just doing it for recreation.
There is also the issue of fishing by indigenous people, to which they feel they have a right. Commercial harvesters see their activities as illegal fishing. This is a very contentious issue in such fisheries as the elver fishery and the lobster fishery in recent years. It has been a problem in other fisheries in other parts of Canada at other times. These situations are very frustrating—for the conservation officers who are caught in the middle, for licensed harvesters and for the indigenous people who feel harassed by both enforcement staff and the commercial harvesters. The frustrations can be mitigated by clearly communicating the rules, having an orderly and regulated fishery, and then providing an adequate monitoring and compliance presence to effectively implement the rules.
While that sounds simple, it is not. While patience is required, action is also required before the situation explodes or stocks are harmed.
The C and P program of DFO has the strategies and capacity to implement a reasonably effective compliance program, but that's if they have a level playing field to start from. That level playing field includes the necessary support from the Coast Guard for them to deliver their offshore compliance programs, clear rules for the commercial fishery and the settlement of rights for indigenous groups. They have effective mechanisms to work with other agencies, such as the RCMP and other federal and provincial agencies. They have, and use, such technologies as satellite monitoring and VMS and forensic investigations. They have the use of the various technologies as much as or more than other agencies.
What needs to be done to address some of the concerns you've been hearing about? Here are five random ideas.
One is presence. The key element in any situation where there is non-compliance is having an effective monitoring presence, which in some cases requires bringing in the necessary staff from other parts of the region or elsewhere in Canada.
Two is leadership. The C and P program sometimes suffers from the lack of strong leaders. Leaders have to be brought in from other organizations, which in many cases doesn't work very well. Effective leadership development has to be a long-term strategy for the C and P program.
Three is to settle the indigenous rights issues. While there is a risk in that, and one side or the other will not like the outcome, the courts may have to be used to settle or clarify the rights of indigenous people who fish. Without that, anarchy will reign and there can be no effective compliance program. The risk is greater than what the courts may decide.
Four is to implement DMP in the lobster fishery. Lobster is the most lucrative fishery in Canada. Almost all quota fisheries have a dockside monitoring program, but lobster does not. Industry will resist, but an effective DMP would resolve most of the current problems in the lobster fishery.
Five is to implement catch certification for all commercial fisheries. More than a decade ago, DFO set up a catch certification office in P.E.I. to meet the EU requirements for government certification that any product going into the EU was legally caught and recorded. A logical next step would be to implement this process for all exports and subsequently require it for all product coming from a fish buyer or processor, regardless of whether it's being exported or not.
Thank you for the opportunity to present to you today. I look forward to your questions.