Fisheries Committee on April 29th, 2026

[Alexis Deschênes, Bloc, Gaspésie—Les Îles-de-la-Madeleine—Listuguj, QC]

In December, I submitted a written request to open a softshell clam fishing site in Carleton‑sur‑Mer and another in Bonaventure. The answer I got was that they didn't have the financial and material resources to conduct the tests.

[Sylvain Vézina]

You're referring to the addition of new harvesting sites, aren't you?

[Alexis Deschênes, Bloc, Gaspésie—Les Îles-de-la-Madeleine—Listuguj, QC]

That's the subject of the study.

Mr. Vézina, I'm going to ask you my question again, because we misunderstood each other.

Do you still lack the resources to open new softshell clam fishing sites in the Gaspésie?

[Sylvain Vézina]

Based on Fisheries and Oceans Canada's mandate, which is really to open or close harvesting areas, we don't have a problem in terms of resources or enforcement. Certainly, opening up new areas requires more research on water quality or things like that.

I will let my colleagues from other departments talk about their mandate and answer your questions.

[Alexis Deschênes, Bloc, Gaspésie—Les Îles-de-la-Madeleine—Listuguj, QC]

I understand, but has the Canadian Food Inspection Agency or Environment and Climate Change Canada submitted any recommendations to you in recent years regarding the opening of new softshell clam fishing sites in the Gaspésie?

[The Chair, Liberal, Patrick Weiler]

Please answer briefly, Mr. Vézina.

[Sylvain Vézina]

No, we have not received any recommendations regarding the opening of new areas recently.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Patrick Weiler]

Thank you, Mr. Deschênes.

That completes our first round of questions.

We're going to start the second round of questions with Mr. Small for five minutes.

[Clifford Small, Conservative, Central Newfoundland, NL]

Thank you Mr. Chair.

I'd like to thank the witnesses for taking part in this valuable study.

My question is for Mr. Struthers.

We had witnesses for this study previously who said one of the main problems with accessing new clam harvesting areas is that there are three federal departments involved in the process. In the province of Quebec, there's a fourth provincial department that's involved in the decision-making. How efficient can the process be with all of these government departments that have to communicate to the public? They have a reputation of not communicating. I'm not sure; I'm not in the bureaucratic system.

How efficient can this possibly be?

[Alistair Struthers]

I believe each department has its own specific mandate to be able to address.... At Fisheries and Oceans, we're responsible for the management of the fisheries and the enforcement. Our colleagues are responsible for water quality sampling and biotoxin sampling. They each have the necessary expertise within their departments to be able to conduct those.

No expertise rests with a single department to be able to manage the entire process.

[Clifford Small, Conservative, Central Newfoundland, NL]

When one of the departments is slacking and not bringing forward its sampling on time or whatnot, who's in charge? Who dishes out the penalties and gives a few slaps to get people moving?

[Alistair Struthers]

As our colleagues mentioned in their opening statements, there is no one single department that is the overall lead for the CSSP. Each department has a role to play.

[Clifford Small, Conservative, Central Newfoundland, NL]

Your department determines the openings and closings, so you have to deal with your colleagues to your left and your right. How often do you talk to Ms. Soo or Ms. Volk in the run of a year?

[Alistair Struthers]

In the run of a year, we actually speak to them fairly often. In particular, I speak with my director-level colleagues at the agency and Environment Canada at minimum every two weeks.

[Clifford Small, Conservative, Central Newfoundland, NL]

Ms. Volk, 50 years ago, there was no need for this bureaucratic nonsense. People who lived on the coast knew when the clams were safe to eat.

How would you rate the quality of the water in terms of a lack of toxins, bioagents or whatnot? How has the water quality changed in the last 30 to 40 years, to your knowledge?

[Joanne Volk]

I come from Atlantic Canada, and I'm very proud to have harvested shellfish most of my life, as well as being a recreational fisher.

I would defer to my colleague on the quality of the water and the change specifically. He has already noted that we see a frequency of extreme events related to storms, owing a lot to climate change. We can point to indicators like that. That would point to—

[Clifford Small, Conservative, Central Newfoundland, NL]

We've had some extremely dry, drought years in the last five years. Probably four out of the last five years had much less rainfall or precipitation than normal. Is that not fair?

[Joanne Volk]

Climatologically, year to year, we have variability, but we know that over time, owing to things like climate change, the number of incidents that promote a closure are increasing. Certainly, there would be annual variation within that general trend, but for more specific information, I would turn to my colleague, if we have time, to address the question further.

[Clifford Small, Conservative, Central Newfoundland, NL]

Okay. Go ahead.

[Arash Shahsavarani]

Mr. Chair, as I indicated, we have an increased number of emergency closures due to rainfall. There's densification that is contributing. There are also the challenges with waste-water treatment and septic systems that are aging.

There isn't a specific study that I know of that has monitored and quantified that over time, but in general, that's what we are seeing.

[Clifford Small, Conservative, Central Newfoundland, NL]

That data, though.... You have a world of AI and quantification available to you. Can't you plot that on a chart?

One would think the water quality in Atlantic Canada has gone way up with the increases in standards, the new treatment centres and whatnot that went in all over the place, based on new environmental laws.

[Arash Shahsavarani]

Mr. Chair, it is something we are actually looking at as we improve our data management system to also look at the patterns over a longer period of time, while our focus is specifically on responding to emergency closures at this time.

[The Chair, Liberal, Patrick Weiler]

Thank you very much, Mr. Small.

Next, we're going to go to Mr. d'Entremont for five minutes.

[Chris d'Entremont, Liberal, Acadie—Annapolis, NS]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. It's a pleasure to join the committee once again.

I want to underline one person who is here who we didn't mention. Mr. Melillo is also here, joining us. It's good to see Eric here as well.

In Nova Scotia, I got to be the minister of fisheries and aquaculture for a number of years. The agreement we always had with DFO and maybe the CFIA—maybe less with the Department of the Environment—was that when there were a number of closed beaches identified, they were qualified as aquaculture sites. Companies that had depuration capabilities were the ones that came in and managed the leases, per se. I wouldn't say they permitted the harvesters, but the harvesters normally worked for the company that had the depuration, so they were able to sell the product back and forth.

Is that experience used across Canada, or is that something that's used specifically in Nova Scotia?

[Alistair Struthers]

The process of depuration is not used very widely. It is used somewhat in Nova Scotia and it's also used a bit in B.C., but it is generally not a very widely used process.