Evidence of meeting #13 for Fisheries and Oceans in the 45th Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was enforcement.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Liberal
National Chief Enforcement Officer, Department of Fisheries and Oceans
To some degree, it does, yes.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Patrick Weiler
Thank you very much, Mr. Morrissey.
Mr. Deschênes, you have the floor for one minute and a half.
Bloc
Alexis Deschênes Bloc Gaspésie—Les Îles-de-la-Madeleine—Listuguj, QC
Thank you.
Mr. Vigneault, in the report aired on the program Enquête, certain facts were presented based on an internal document from Fisheries and Oceans Canada. It was alleged that up to one third of the lobster stock had been illegally removed from the sea.
How does that situation affect your department, given that you are responsible for monitoring ecosystem management and ensuring that harvesting efforts are in keeping with existing resources?
Director General, Ecosystem Science Directorate, Department of Fisheries and Oceans
Thank you very much for the question.
Obviously, this is a concern in terms of resource conservation. From a scientific standpoint, lobster stocks in the Gulf of St. Lawrence region are assessed based on landings. If there was an impact on stock stability or a major change in this regard due to illegal fishing, we would see it over time, based on our annual scientific assessments and the landing index.
Currently, stocks are healthy. They are in what we call the “healthy zone”, according to the precautionary approach. Scientifically speaking, we can say that there is no evidence of any impact on the lobster population. We can say so based on landings.
Yes, it is a concern, but we will be able to monitor it over time based on our scientific assessments.
Bloc
Alexis Deschênes Bloc Gaspésie—Les Îles-de-la-Madeleine—Listuguj, QC
Am I right in saying that, in essence, there is a risk of overfishing?
Director General, Ecosystem Science Directorate, Department of Fisheries and Oceans
In all cases, we hope to have the best possible data on actual landings. Based on that data, we produce a scientific opinion and make decisions about the fisheries.
If there are unreported landings, there will indeed be an impact on the state of the lobster population.
From a scientific standpoint, if natural mortality or unreported landings are constant over time, it presents less of a problem, since scientific assessments are conducted annually and we can make comparisons.
However, if there were a significant increase in unreported landings, it could have an impact on the lobster population. It would take a few years before we saw that signal in the scientific assessments.
Bloc
November 20th, 2025 / 10:20 a.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Patrick Weiler
Thank you very much, Mr. Deschênes.
That concludes the second hour with this panel and our meeting today.
I want to thank all our witnesses for being here in person. We may be seeing you again on December 4, when we have the minister appearing.
Our next meeting is going to be on Tuesday, November 25. We're going to have a briefing from the commissioner of the environment and sustainable development on his recent report, entitled “Establishing Marine Protected Areas”, as well as from the three federal organizations that were audited.
With that, I'm going to adjourn today's meeting.
Mr. Small.
Conservative
Clifford Small Conservative Central Newfoundland, NL
Mr. Chair, have you had any indication yet as to when the minister is going to appear here on the estimates?
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Patrick Weiler
Yes, I just mentioned that earlier. It is on December 4. The minister will be appearing then.
That's great. With that, the meeting is adjourned.
