Fisheries Committee on Nov. 20th, 2025

[Peter Lambertucci]

There is a very robust program and planning in place whereby our reliance on Canadian Coast Guard platforms continues to exist as it has existed historically. That is an ongoing relationship that we will be maintaining into the foreseeable future. Not only is that platform sharing something that we rely on, but that interdependency with the Canadian Coast Guard is also extremely material to the effectiveness of C and P.

[Ernie Klassen, Liberal, South Surrey—White Rock, BC]

Okay. Thank you very much.

Ms. Ladell, could you talk to us a bit about ensuring that habitat protection measures are enforced consistently across the regions?

[Kate Ladell]

I can speak to consistency. In terms of the enforcement component of that, I would turn to my colleague, Mr. Lambertucci.

Certainly, with respect to improving consistency and coherence in the implementation and management of the habitat provisions, that's something that we in the department are working very coherently on right now to ensure that there is that coherent implementation of the fish and fish habitat protection provisions.

With respect to the enforcement of those, that would fall to my colleague's area of responsibility.

[Ernie Klassen, Liberal, South Surrey—White Rock, BC]

Okay, thank you.

I would ask Mr. Lambertucci about enforcement in that area.

[Peter Lambertucci]

Habitat protection is an essential part of what we do in the Fisheries Act, and we do allocate a tremendous number of resource and resource hours to inspecting, patrolling and enforcing that habitat protection.

[Ernie Klassen, Liberal, South Surrey—White Rock, BC]

Thank you.

There has been a lot of innuendo around DFO officers not performing their duties. I'm happy to hear that there have been a lot of opportunities for the public to see that there is more enforcement happening right now.

What actions would you say have been taken over the last year to address some of the concerns for officers on the ground?

[Peter Lambertucci]

The actions have been substantial in terms of making sure we revisit what our core priorities are and allocating resources to those core priorities. Officer safety and wellness is another function of how we augment those core priorities.

With my leadership team, I have the ability to redeploy resources and augment teams through priority fisheries to ensure that there are a number of fishery officers available over and above what may be allocated to a particular region. We do move resources between provinces to do that.

[Ernie Klassen, Liberal, South Surrey—White Rock, BC]

Thank you very much.

Mr. Burns, what progress has been made on integrating indigenous knowledge and co-management into regulatory decisions?

[Adam Burns]

Certainly, the department works closely with indigenous rights holders and indigenous communities with interests in various fisheries. We seek their traditional knowledge through a variety of mechanisms, including through advisory committees but also through bilateral engagement with them in order to ensure that we and the decision-makers benefit from that traditional knowledge.

[Ernie Klassen, Liberal, South Surrey—White Rock, BC]

Mr. Vigneault, could you talk a bit about indigenous involvement in the areas that you work within?

[Bernard Vigneault]

In addition to the advisory process, through the full continuum of delivery of science, we engage indigenous people to gain insights from indigenous knowledge. Some collaborative projects include the designs of the monitoring program and having indigenous knowledge-holders invited to our pre-review science advice committees, where they provide insight into the interpretation of data and contribute to the provision of science advice in support of decision-making.

[The Chair, Liberal, Patrick Weiler]

Thank you very much, Mr. Klassen.

Just owing to our later start time, I'm going to put in an abridged third round of questioning. We'll have two minutes each for the Conservatives and Liberals and then a minute and a half for the Bloc.

With that, we'll go to Mr. Arnold for two minutes.

[Mel Arnold, Conservative, Kamloops—Shuswap—Central Rockies, BC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Lambertucci, could you provide the committee in writing with how many C and P personnel the department has had over the last 10 years and how many C and P frontline officers there were by year over the past decade?

My next question is for Mr. Burns.

Mr. Burns, we've heard of hardship on both coasts in testimony here, regarding fleet separation not being enforced on the east coast and beneficial ownership not being addressed on the west coast. These are not new problems. The committee studied this in 2019, six years ago, and these issues were coming up. We heard from Mr. German this morning that the money-laundering issue was apparent in this area.

You spoke about that this morning, but your words were extremely vague, and, I guess, unaffirming to the people out there whose lives depend on this happening. What is being done, and how soon can they expect these issues to be addressed by your department?

[Adam Burns]

On the east coast, inshore licences are subject to the inshore regulations, which means that when we issue a licence, we turn our minds to whether or not that individual to whom the licence will be issued is eligible, pursuant to the inshore regulations. We do that through a variety of mechanisms. There are various triggers—

[Mel Arnold, Conservative, Kamloops—Shuswap—Central Rockies, BC]

Why is it not being enforced? We hear a lot about work towards compliance, but not enforcement. Why is that?

[Adam Burns]

A number of licences have been put under review since the regulations were brought into effect. The way the regulations are crafted is meant to bring people into compliance with the regulations. It is not seeking to take away the livelihood from individual licence-holders, but rather to ensure that they are compliant with the regulations so that they have—

[Mel Arnold, Conservative, Kamloops—Shuswap—Central Rockies, BC]

It's not the fishermen, the actual “on paper” holders of the licence, but the people over them who are holding the financial noose on them, who need to be addressed. We've heard that. You've heard that. You know it. Why isn't it being addressed?

[Adam Burns]

The department has done a lot of work over the last number of years in terms of access to capital and trying to enable legitimate mechanisms for access to capital in order for harvesters to acquire their access, but, certainly, we look at each and every transaction that is brought to us, in terms of transfers in particular, in order to ensure that those are compliant. In cases in which they're not, we do not issue the transfer, and we work with the harvester to ensure that they are not subject to control that is contrary to the regulations.

[The Chair, Liberal, Patrick Weiler]

Thank you very much, Mr. Arnold.

Next, we go to Mr. Morrissey for two minutes.

[Bobby Morrissey, Liberal, Egmont, PE]

Thank you, Chair.

My question is for Mr. Lambertucci. The Government of Nova Scotia recently announced an establishment of a “protection branch”, as I'll call it, to enforce more areas that come under provincial jurisdiction. Is this a step in the right direction to curb a lot of the cash in illegal sales that we keep hearing about?

[Peter Lambertucci]

I am looking forward with enthusiasm to working with this new compliance unit that's been stood up to help us on those interdependencies between the federal and provincial responsibilities.

[Bobby Morrissey, Liberal, Egmont, PE]

Good. So am I, and I wish other provinces would follow suit.

Because fishers, especially lobster harvesters, have the ability to store their catch in holding facilities before they sell it, how does this impact the department's ability to enforce the movement of lobster or validate where it's coming from at any given time? Could you give a brief opinion on this? Does it negatively impact your ability to enforce?

[Peter Lambertucci]

I can't submit an opinion, but I can say, factually, that we inspect a number of holding facilities throughout the season and off-season to monitor—

[Bobby Morrissey, Liberal, Egmont, PE]

These are fisher-owned, not the buyers. The fishers can hold their own before they move it to a buyer. Some people feel that impacts the ability of the department to enforce where that product is coming from.

[Peter Lambertucci]

We do monitor, but we do not enforce. You are correct.