Evidence of meeting #22 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 mpas.
A video is available from Parliament.
Liberal
Liberal
Serge Cormier Liberal Acadie—Bathurst, NB
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thanks to all the witnesses for being here today.
Look, as I've said many times, my father was a fisherman all his life. I truly know how important fishing communities are for some of those people. It's not because we're sitting on the government side that we agree sometimes on what we're trying to achieve. This is why we have you here. We want to know what's wrong with these MPAs that are being developed.
Mr. Barron, you were saying that you feel this thing has already been decided. Did you attend some of those meetings with DFO officials about those MPAs? Did you see some maps? Did they tell you that you wouldn't be able to fish in those areas? What was the sense at these meetings? What was the vibe?
President, Cape Breton Fish Harvesters Association
I was on the original working group between 2012 and 2013 for St. Anns Bank, which is just off Cape Breton. There were two what I would consider to be fairly good consultation meetings. After that, it was just “check the box”, because they had to have so many. What we put forth as recommendations wasn't even close to what we asked, because—
Liberal
Serge Cormier Liberal Acadie—Bathurst, NB
Can you give me an example of a recommendation you gave to the committee in the meeting?
President, Cape Breton Fish Harvesters Association
They gave us three specific areas that they were going to allow us to take from. We asked them for certain latitude and longitude coordinates so that we could harvest within there. We didn't get them in take zone 3. That has the most lucrative halibut fishing grounds. It ended up pretty much displacing some of the fleet that was able to venture a little bit further offshore than others were. It put it outside the realm to even make it worthwhile going.
Liberal
Serge Cormier Liberal Acadie—Bathurst, NB
Were you ever told by officials that the zone or the area that you were being told would be an MPA would be closed to fishing, no matter what?
President, Cape Breton Fish Harvesters Association
In zone 1, yes; there are four zones within St. Anns Bank. We were told that there would be places we'd be able to harvest. They wanted our recommendations.
Liberal
Serge Cormier Liberal Acadie—Bathurst, NB
That being said, it would prevent a lot of fishermen from being able to fish for halibut, I think you said, or was it lobster as well?
President, Cape Breton Fish Harvesters Association
Zones 2 and 4 are mainly halibut. There's some snow crab in zone 3. Zone 2 is all lobster traps, with a little bit of a fall halibut fishery.
Liberal
Liberal
President, Cape Breton Fish Harvesters Association
No. As an industry, we're not looking for compensation. We're looking to maintain a way of life that we're used to making. We're not looking for handouts, which is what compensation is.
Liberal
Serge Cormier Liberal Acadie—Bathurst, NB
I totally understand, but the automobile sector, for example, is taking a hit right now. The government is giving them some help. Let's say an MPA will impact some fishing community. Don't you think some kind of help needs to be going to these communities as well?
President, Cape Breton Fish Harvesters Association
Yes, but this was an already established MPA. If there were any future MPAs—
President, Cape Breton Fish Harvesters Association
—it might have to be a discussion that takes place then.
Liberal
Serge Cormier Liberal Acadie—Bathurst, NB
Okay.
Mr. McIsaac, you were talking about your shrimp fisheries. I think B.C.'s is a little bit different from ours in Atlantic Canada; I don't know the area that well. Is the zone you're talking about close to shrimp fisheries? Is this a proposed MPA?
Executive Director, BC Shrimp Trawlers’ Association
The Canadian MPA standards that came out in 2023 have four prohibitions. One of those prohibitions is to trawl. All trawling in new MPAs is excluded. For any new MPA that comes up, it's excluded.
Executive Director, BC Shrimp Trawlers’ Association
That's across the country, not just in B.C. but everywhere.
Liberal
Serge Cormier Liberal Acadie—Bathurst, NB
Did you put in your recommendations when you had those meetings with the officials?
Executive Director, BC Shrimp Trawlers’ Association
We tried to have that changed when ECCC put it forward in 2022.
