Fisheries Committee on Oct. 7th, 2025

[Clifford Small, Conservative, Central Newfoundland, NL]

What has been the impact of the ENGOs like Oceana, which constantly pushed to have this quota at an extremely low percentage of the biomass?

[Alain d'Entremont]

I think various ENGO groups have participated in the process and in the consultation.

Going back to the earlier questions from Chris, it's interesting, because we don't always know what comes out of the advisory committee in terms of advice going up to the minister. Whether or not the ENGO consultation documents or submissions were held at a different standard from ours as stakeholders is something I don't think we know or fully understand.

[Clifford Small, Conservative, Central Newfoundland, NL]

You've seen the growth in the power of ENGOs at stock advisories. Do you think the minister should walk that back at this stage?

[Alain d'Entremont]

For me, it depends on the ENGO. I think that some ENGOs come with a very good understanding of the fishery and a practical understanding of how it works—others, not so much. I think that to participate, any type of stakeholder should meet minimum criteria in terms of involvement, engagement or understanding of the fishery.

[The Chair, Liberal, Patrick Weiler]

Thank you very much, Mr. Small.

Next, we're going to Mr. Connors for five minutes or less.

[Paul Connors, Liberal, Avalon, NL]

Thank you.

Mr. d'Entremont, you mentioned in your opening statement that there are markets around the world and everything. Have you identified a market now?

[Alain d'Entremont]

Yes. We have expanded on our traditional markets here domestically in Canada and the U.S., but the main focus to move large amounts of volume seems to be export markets overseas.

We've spent a lot of time and effort building a market in China. That seems to be going well. I'm headed there in a few weeks to meet our customers, now that we've sent them samples. They seem to be happy with the product.

We are facing competition from other parts of the world. That, of course, makes it challenging, but we do think that with the Canadian product delivered, captured and processed in the way that we can, we can deliver a really good product. We are hopeful that will continue to grow.

[Paul Connors, Liberal, Avalon, NL]

Some of the fishermen I spoke to talked about the size. The fillets are just not big enough for the markets.

Do you see that as an obstacle, or can you build on that? Do you have any thoughts on why the fish are not growing to the size we want them to be?

[Alain d'Entremont]

Yes, thank you. There are a couple of things.

In terms of the size of the fish, I think it's a carrying capacity and density dependence issue, where you just have so much redfish competing for the same food in that same ecosystem. The warmer waters in the gulf certainly have an impact. I think we're seeing population-level impacts across many of the species in the gulf. It's hard to ignore that there must be some environmental factor contributing to that.

In terms of the fillets, it certainly is challenging to process small redfish fillets, but we do it. I also think the world has changed, where product forms are different. We sell whole round redfish, H and G redfish and butterflied redfish. There are various fillet forms and value-added forms. It's going to need a suite and a combination of all of those to make this viable, especially for this small fish.

[Paul Connors, Liberal, Avalon, NL]

I have a question about the sustainability of the fishery, and it concerns redfish and gulf shrimp. Is there any concern among shrimpers that not catching the redfish quota will lead to a worse recovery or damage to the shrimp stock?

[Alain d'Entremont]

I've heard that argument. At the levels of redfish removal that are possible, even if we sent every vessel in Canada to go harvest redfish in the gulf, we don't have the port facilities, the markets or the processing capacity to handle all that, but I'm not sure we could have an impact on the population at that level to save shrimp. I certainly think that redfish play a part in the ecosystem, but I think it would be very difficult or challenging for us as humans to be able to have that level of impact on that redfish stock.

If you look at the recent assessments with the high level of natural mortality, it looks to me like the environment is somewhat correcting or rebalancing itself based on what we see in the surveys and in the fishery.

[Paul Connors, Liberal, Avalon, NL]

Do you process redfish from any other provinces, such as Newfoundland and Labrador?

[Alain d'Entremont]

No. As I said earlier, we've harvested in pretty much every open redfish fishery this year that's gone through my plant. We've harvested redfish in 3L, 3N, 3O, 3Ps, 3Pn, 4R, 4T, 4Vn and then 4Vs, 4W, 4X and 5Z. I think the only open area we haven't fished would be 4S, and that's just because we haven't had to go that far.

[Paul Connors, Liberal, Avalon, NL]

Mr. Collin, I have a question for you now about the lobster fishery. You mentioned in your opening remarks that it became a territorial fishery when it was divided and the line was drawn, but isn't adjacency a big part of some of the fisheries that are on the go now, and hasn't it been a part of the fishery historically?

Is there no interpretation?

[The Chair, Liberal, Patrick Weiler]

We're going to have to pause briefly to make sure the interpretation is working.

I am going to speak in French to see if it works.

Okay, we're getting French to English, and now I'm going to talk in English and we'll see if it's going to translate into French.

We're back.

Mr. Connors, I'm going to turn it back over to you. You have about 45 seconds left.

[Paul Connors, Liberal, Avalon, NL]

Okay.

This is a quick question on adjacency in the lobster fishery. You mentioned at the beginning that it was a territorial fishery. Can you provide some comments on that?

[Ghislain Collin]

The Gaspé fishing territory was split in two. Northern Gaspé was favoured at the expense of southern Gaspé. Southern fishers were not allowed to participate in the draw, even though they often fish and work in the north. The argument that it was not our fishing grounds does not hold water. That was the last provision to disqualify us. It was added to benefit certain groups. There was only one group of fishers for whom it was devastating, and that was the pelagic fishers. We were never consulted on that.

[The Chair, Liberal, Patrick Weiler]

Thank you very much, Mr. Connors.

I now give the floor to Mr. Deschênes for two and a half minutes.

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

Mr. Collin, I want to come back to this point. When we look at the regional lobster knowledge and development plan in areas 17 and 19, we see that the allocation criteria were different for the fleets. For pelagic fishers, anyone who did not live between Rivière-du-Loup and Gaspé could not apply.

How do you respond to this idea by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans to prioritize those who are closer to fishing areas?

[Ghislain Collin]

This process was set up by DFO to help fishers who were in dire straits. In six years, the only thing the department has set up to help fishers in dire straits is this process for the lobster fishery. We thought it was pretty shameful to see DFO disqualify us like that.

I do not understand why the department decided to split the Gaspé in two. It had already separated the Gaspé and the Côte‑Nord. For a number of years now, you cannot buy a licence on the Côte‑Nord if you do not live there, and vice versa.

In this case, the department split the Gaspé in two. However, all the fall herring fishers gather in Chaleur Bay and all over to fish. Sometimes we go up to Rimouski to fish.

We do not understand why the department made that decision.

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

At the same time, in this process, there are people from the southern part of the Gaspé who have been able to obtain exploratory permits.

[Ghislain Collin]

Yes. There were criteria for certain fleets, and there were different criteria for other fleets. Those are called accommodating criteria.

For us, the criteria have always been meant to disqualify. Criteria were always used to get in our way. When we had hope, something else happened to take that hope away from us. In the end, we did not participate in the draw at all.

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

Why do you think it ended that way in your case?

[Ghislain Collin]

In the beginning, when we started our representation, because we were in trouble and the fishery had stopped 24 hours before the beginning of the fishing season without us being notified, elected officials who were in the region stood up to help us.

Perhaps the Liberals believe that we are sovereignists. As I told you earlier, I am the president of an association. However, in that association, members vote for both the Liberals and the Conservatives.

The only ones who stood up and had the courage to help us were members of the Bloc Québécois and the Parti Québécois. The Liberals, who were in power, could not really stand up and say it was disgusting.

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

So you think you were punished for that.