Evidence of meeting #41 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 report.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Director General, Ecosystem Science Directorate, Department of Fisheries and Oceans
It's not relevant in the sense that it's not a decision document. We don't make recommendations. We don't make management decisions. This is the information we have. The precautionary approach comes next, followed by a regulatory decision.
Conservative
Tamara Kronis Conservative Nanaimo—Ladysmith, BC
What use is this document to anyone doing impact work?
Director General, Ecosystem Science Directorate, Department of Fisheries and Oceans
I can describe how we use it for ourselves, as an example.
We are concerned. We mentioned the very important concern of fish harvesters. We are also concerned about the viability of our science survey for fish stocks long-term.
This exercise compiled all the information from our own survey. The survey we conduct, in collaboration with the industry, overlaps with areas where there is a potential for conflict in terms of usage of space and either we won't have access to the area to do the survey work because of the infrastructure, or there would be an indirect impact, like if there's an impact on the oceanography that would change the signal we're measuring. That's an example.
Conservative
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Hedy Fry
The time is up. Thank you.
Mr. Deschênes, you have the floor for two and a half minutes.
Alexis Deschênes Bloc Gaspésie—Les Îles-de-la-Madeleine—Listuguj, QC
Thank you, Madam Chair.
I've had time to take a closer look at the documents that were provided, and I still have questions about certain things.
Ms. Williams, we see that you had a meeting in May 2025. At that time, Natural Resources Canada was reaching out to the Department of Fisheries and Oceans about measures to mitigate the anticipated impacts on fisheries.
Your notes state that the fish and fish habitat protection program will assess the impacts on fish and their habitat in accordance with the spirit of section 34 of the Fisheries Act, which specifically addresses the protection of fish and their habitat in relation to fisheries management objectives. Furthermore, the request for advice is clear: “…there is a need for science advice to inform anticipated project-specific impact assessments.”
Based on what was done back then, in May 2025, I don't understand why, in your December report, you deliberately refrained from examining the potential impacts of the wind energy industry.
Was there any political pressure on you to scale back the scope of your report?
Regional Director, Aquatic Ecosystems, Maritimes Region, Department of Fisheries and Oceans
No, we were not approached politically. We were really responding to the call for information that concluded in January of this year.
Fisheries compensation is ongoing. We are engaged in discussions with colleagues in the department on that. There's more information that DFO continues to provide as this process moves along. The report we are discussing here today is not really the complete series of information that we will be providing going forward.
Bloc
Alexis Deschênes Bloc Gaspésie—Les Îles-de-la-Madeleine—Listuguj, QC
I get the sense that your department has made a bit more progress on the marine ecosystem impact assessment than one might think from reading the first report.
Regional Director, Aquatic Ecosystems, Maritimes Region, Department of Fisheries and Oceans
I have no response to that. I'm not quite sure what you're getting at with that question. Could you give me a bit more context?
Director General, Ecosystem Science Directorate, Department of Fisheries and Oceans
As I tried to explain earlier, the challenge when providing scientific advice on projects of this scale is that the needs and when those needs will arise are not known in advance.
Regarding the first document you referred to, the goal is to keep an open file for all the scientific advice that will be needed over time to assess projects.
That specific request for information was not a request for advice on the impacts of a project. It was really to reach out to partners, including Fisheries and Oceans. We were asked to provide regulatory agencies with any relevant information or data to support the decision regarding the specific areas to be used within the larger designated areas. That's what we did.
The first document is therefore an open file with all the scientific advice we'll provide as part of our collaboration with our colleagues in ecosystems management.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Hedy Fry
Thank you very much.
I want to thank the witnesses for their discussion of this report. It was a very interesting discussion, to say the least. Thank you for being here.
I'm now going to suspend so that we can move to the in camera component of our meeting, which is on the Fisheries Act.
[Proceedings continue in camera]