Good morning, and thank you for the invitation to appear here today.
The Vancouver Anti-Corruption Institute is an integral part of the International Centre for Criminal Law Reform, a non-profit located at the University of British Columbia.
I'm a former deputy commissioner of the RCMP. I worked alongside fisheries enforcement officers in my early policing career and was also a federal prosecutor dealing with Fisheries Act violations. My current expertise is with respect to money laundering and corruption.
I appeared before this committee in 2023, and I understand that evidence from that time has been rolled into the current review. I intend to touch on different but related issues today: enforcement capacity, organized crime involvement and money-laundering risks. Together, these issues pose a serious threat, not only to conservation and resource sustainability but also to public safety, economic integrity and community trust.
Over the past decade, enforcement of Canada's fisheries laws has struggled to keep pace with increasingly complex pressures. Fishery officers and conservation and protection staff consistently report under-resourcing, high-risk conditions and growing volumes of illegal activity. Several recent reviews and labour investigations have described officers facing armed individuals, intimidation, dangerous nighttime operations and significant safety gaps. Proper resourcing of those charged with enforcement is critical if we hope to make a difference.
Internationally, agencies such as the UN Office on Drugs and Crime warn that the fishing sector is structurally vulnerable to organized crime because of opaque ownership structures, international vessel movement and high-value commodities that are easily moved. Canada is not immune. Our experience with elvers, lobster and illicit vessel activity reflects these global patterns.
A particularly galling example of what is occurring involves the illegal harvesting of crab on the west coast and its sale to processors. This is a cash business, and the profits are huge. Although there has been enforcement, the fines are simply insufficient to curb the activity. Fines are simply viewed as the cost of doing business.
The involvement of organized crime shifts fisheries issues from being simple regulatory challenges to being public safety and national security issues. Organized crime is not a distant or hypothetical concern; there is now substantial evidence of the presence in Canadian fisheries of organized crime and money laundering, which is the back office of organized crime.
The concern is twofold.
First is the use of fishing vessels and export channels to move illegal goods or disguise the origins of illicit proceeds. The use of fishing vessels for illegal purposes raises the spectre of what we see taking place in the Caribbean and the response of the U.S. to drug boats.
Second is the use of licences and quotas as financial assets that can store or integrate criminal funds. Licences and quotas are valuable transferable assets. When beneficial ownership is not transparent, the system is vulnerable. The adoption of a beneficial ownership registry in fisheries, though still incomplete, and the federal government's recent commitment to a beneficial ownership registry for corporations reflect the importance of transparency. We cannot simply allow our fishery to be sold to unknown persons using unsourced funds.
Recent investigative reporting and intelligence from FINTRAC, our financial intelligence unit, also point to suspicious activity within the fishery sector, including underground banking networks and unusual patterns in licence-related financial activity. Unfortunately, fish quotas and boat sales are not reportable to FINTRAC. This is regrettable, as it eliminates an important source of intelligence.
The ongoing five-year review of the Fisheries Act is an important opportunity to strengthen five points: enforcement capacity, including capacity to deal with organized crime and money laundering; inter-agency co-operation and coordination with the RCMP, the CBSA and FINTRAC; beneficial ownership transparency for licences and quotas; data systems and a public registry in fisheries to enable accountability; and proactive tools, not just reactive enforcement.
In conclusion, Canada's fisheries are central to our environment, economy and coastal cultures, but weak enforcement capacity, documented organized crime activity and real money-laundering risks threaten the integrity of the system. Strengthening enforcement is not just about protecting fish: It's about protecting communities, ensuring fairness and safeguarding the long-term sustainability of one of Canada’s most important natural resources.
I thank you for your work. I'm happy to answer any questions you may have.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.