Evidence of meeting #5 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 fishers.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Patrick Weiler
Mr. Deschênes, your time is up.
We have two more speakers and I'm going to do a shorter round, because we're getting right up against it here. We'll do four minutes for Mr. d'Entremont and then Mr. Klassen.
Mr. d'Entremont, you have four minutes or less.
Conservative
Chris d'Entremont Conservative Acadie—Annapolis, NS
With four minutes or less, where do I go now?
On the issue of lobster licences, I think the problem we run into is that the data to support the fishery is not necessarily there. I think the minister sort of popped it out of the air and said, “Well, let's try to support it with a lobster fishery.”
My question is for Mr. Collin.
Would lobster be the answer to fishing problems in Gaspésie?
President, Regroupement des pêcheurs pélagiques professionnels du sud de la Gaspésie
No, but since it was a program designed to help struggling fleets, just like shrimpers and turbot fishers, we were flatly discriminated against, to the extent that the minister, thinking we were not Liberals, might have thought it was not worth helping us. I do not know. This happened when the election campaign was about to begin, so we are still wondering whether this process was electioneering and used to get votes in less heavily Liberal regions.
Conservative
Chris d'Entremont Conservative Acadie—Annapolis, NS
My last question will go to Mr. d'Entremont.
With that 60,000 tonnes of quota, how do we look at this year coming up? Are we going to be able to take more of that out of the water? Are catch rates going to be a little better as we're learning about the fishery and the other participants in that as well?
President, Scotia Harvest Inc.
I think the biggest thing with redfish in the gulf is not anything related to catch rates. It's catching the product in a form or producing it in a form that the market will demand. It doesn't make a heck of a lot of sense to go out and just fill boats unless you have the ability to process it and then deliver it to the market in the form the customers need.
I think the market constraints are going to be the limiting factors of the TAC more than any other limit that we have currently.
Conservative
Chris d'Entremont Conservative Acadie—Annapolis, NS
Is there an opportunity on bait? We've been having some bait issues in southwest Nova Scotia with the lobster fishery.
President, Scotia Harvest Inc.
There's no question that there are opportunities to replace some other species, or to at least replace imports from other parts of the world, but fishermen tend to want certain bait.
We've made a lot of redfish available. We do sell a lot of redfish cuttings and heads for bait, but it's not going to be the whole answer, because there's no question that there are more redfish there and available right now than what the demand would be for bait for trap fisheries.
Conservative
Chris d'Entremont Conservative Acadie—Annapolis, NS
In the larger context, is the Department of Fisheries still in the way of some of the processes you're looking at?
President, Scotia Harvest Inc.
I mean, I'm sure we can come up with reasons for why it's more difficult to do business, but I think that this year we've had a better start than we did last year. A lot of that started with the department actually listening to us for the first time, when we told them at the advisory committee why so much fish stayed in the water.
We pointed to the issues with certain management measures and depth restrictions and said that we could meet other conservation needs ourselves through adjusting our gear, changing our fishing patterns and changing our time of year. Fishermen are really good at their jobs, and if you give them the opportunity and tell them, “This is what you need to do,” they generally can find a way.
I think that DFO's approach of saying, “These are all the limits. Find a way to make it work,” is a lot easier. If they just tell us how much fish we can catch, we'll figure out how to get them out of the water in a way that works.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Patrick Weiler
Thank you very much, Mr. d'Entremont.
Our last questioner in the first panel will be Mr. Klassen.
You have four minutes or less.
Liberal
Ernie Klassen Liberal South Surrey—White Rock, BC
Thank you.
Mr. Cormier was wanting to finish up some questions he'd started, so I'll pass it over to him.
Liberal
Serge Cormier Liberal Acadie—Bathurst, NB
Thank you very much.
It is hard to ask all our questions in four minutes.
Mr. Collin, I understand that you are disappointed in this whole process. I, too, have been disappointed over the years with some of the decisions made by ministers, whether it is the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans or other ministers. We were certainly disappointed by the decisions of ministers from other parties as well. However, if we spend too much time discussing that, we will not find a solution today. We want to see how we can move forward.
You mentioned that some of your members, including you, have had a lobster licence in the past. I am just trying to sort it out. If, tomorrow morning, I sell my house for $200,000 and, five years later, I realize that it is now worth $500,000, I will not go back to the buyer to ask for the difference. What I mean by that is that there are fishers who made the decision themselves to sell some of their licences when the fishery was not doing well and now that the fishery is doing well in certain areas, they want them back. People look for all kinds of reasons, and that is understandable. Everyone wants to live well, have an income, and so on.
What I am getting at is this. I understand that some of your members are struggling. There are also fishers in difficulty in my region, in the herring and mackerel industry. However, there are already mechanisms in place to help them, as I told you earlier. For example, crab quotas have already been transferred between fleets. We could also revise those quotas, or allow the buyback of certain licences. Maybe the lobster licence you sold is not worth $500,000. There is a price.
Would you be in favour of some sort of licence buyback program? That is the only question I have for you.
President, Regroupement des pêcheurs pélagiques professionnels du sud de la Gaspésie
What needs to be clearly understood is that the four members, of which I am one, who were excluded from the draw because they once had a crustacean licence, always knew that they would be excluded. That has always been clear, and we have never fought against it. We are here today for those who have been sidelined and have never had a crustacean licence. They live in poverty now.
Liberal
President, Regroupement des pêcheurs pélagiques professionnels du sud de la Gaspésie
That has never been challenged.
Liberal
Serge Cormier Liberal Acadie—Bathurst, NB
Okay.
Mr. d'Entremont, thanks for being here. I'm not sure if you're the brother or cousin or whatever of our colleague. I'm not going to question that.
Liberal
Serge Cormier Liberal Acadie—Bathurst, NB
Kidding aside, what was the share of the offshore you got through the new redfish allocation quota? Was it about 58%?
President, Scotia Harvest Inc.
Yes. After the 20% was taken off for the other two shares, it would have been around 58%.
Liberal
Serge Cormier Liberal Acadie—Bathurst, NB
Of course, some of the historical share was not respected, as you said. You probably had a little more than that before the fishery was closed.
That being said, you said earlier that there's a way to have a partnership—for example, for shrimpers or other fleets to partner with you, get some of your quota and go fish redfish.
Liberal
Serge Cormier Liberal Acadie—Bathurst, NB
Let's say a shrimper wants to go fish tomorrow with some of your allocation—30¢ a pound. What share will you give him to fish that quota for you?
President, Scotia Harvest Inc.
It depends on the size of fish, and it depends on the time of year. When we make arrangements with vessels to harvest for us, we tend to look at a longer-term partnership throughout the year. For a lot of those vessels, they're not available for a good chunk of the year. In terms of being able to land them in a form that we can then transport to the plant and produce, it makes it difficult, but we pay a fair price based on what they land. Right now, most of it is being landed in Glace Bay and then trucked down to my plant. We have purchased from other places in the past.