International Trade Committee on Nov. 26th, 2013

[Peter Connors]

Yes, I guess that's it.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Merrifield]

Fair enough. I don't want to belabour that, but I wanted to get clarification of your testimony.

Mr. Morin, the floor is yours for five minutes.

[Marc-André Morin, NDP, Laurentides—Labelle, QC]

Mr. Connors, from what I see, the people who harvest the seafood at this time can hardly get a price that covers their operation costs. We've seen the lobster fishery in New Brunswick being delayed because the fishermen were not prepared to sell their product under cost. That's one of the threats, I think, because we see the retail price of lobster, say in Montreal, and we say “How come those guys can't make a living with that?”

Do you think this problem might increase if there's pressure to export to Europe? Will the people who own the export system put pressure to get the product even cheaper?

[Peter Connors]

Yes, part of my previous answer was about the niche markets and the domestic market. We had meetings here just three weeks ago with chefs who would like to buy fresh fish, but they can only buy a certain amount. The problem they have is the amount they buy.

It's the same as the niche markets with lobster, and any fish, for that matter. Sometimes the capacity isn't there to handle the volume we catch, so then we become subject to the commodity dealers, if you will, who ship everything as a commodity. Then it's all based on factors other than fresh fish quality and that niche market.

So you have two different markets, and it may impact on them, depending on the trade conduit and how that's set up, I would think.

[Marc-André Morin, NDP, Laurentides—Labelle, QC]

When the product becomes a commodity and it's dealt with on a broad basis, you're competing against other countries that sell the same product.

[Peter Connors]

Yes, we are.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Merrifield]

Thank you very much.

[Ron Cannan, Conservative, Kelowna—Lake Country, BC]

Thanks very much, Mr. Chair, and thanks to our witnesses.

Thanks very much, Mr. Connors, for your testimony this afternoon. It has been very interesting and very passionate. We have heard from the fishing industry representatives from Newfoundland and throughout the Maritimes that it's part of our culture and part of the history of Canada, and it's a resource. I come from British Columbia, where we're very blessed with a diversity of resources.

I was trying to understand when you talked about how you're struggling right now as an industry. The revenue from lobster is down by about 50%, so it's fair to say that the status quo is not working.

[Peter Connors]

That's our opinion, yes.

[Ron Cannan, Conservative, Kelowna—Lake Country, BC]

Could you expand on or clarify this? If you were the Minister of Fisheries, what would be the right kind of structure or mechanism you'd like to establish?

[Peter Connors]

I'm not saying so much the federal government, but there has to be better organization of the whole sector, because the free market system we had in place doesn't seem to be serving the industry very well now. So much consolidation took place in some sectors, and it doesn't seem to be working very well. I think there has to be organization and some proper facilitation of some negotiations. Put the industry in the Maritimes under some kind of a structure so that it can take the place of what we feel isn't working now, more an agreed upon structure, if you will, so that we can work together more, rather than with undue competition. We suspect some of the price manipulation is causing problems.

[Ron Cannan, Conservative, Kelowna—Lake Country, BC]

If you could open up a market with the EU, like 500 million more stomachs, that would be a great opportunity, right? You're saying you don't have the resources to put the infrastructure in place to take advantage of that, the way the structure is in place right now.

[Peter Connors]

That's my opinion. I think we could use some help bringing everybody on the same page and coming up with a better structure to address this opportunity that's coming up. I think we're going to have to.

[Ron Cannan, Conservative, Kelowna—Lake Country, BC]

As an association with over 220 members, have you ever considered establishing a co-op?

[Peter Connors]

Some have, some haven't. As I said earlier, there are always two schools of thought, and that's one of them.

We're transitioning. For years we had an owner-operated fishery. The federal government managed that fishery. In effect, the fishermen caught the fish, sold them to the buyers, and, like a free market system, worked under the management of the federal government. Now we're finding ourselves having to restructure, and we're pretty vulnerable because we don't have a lot of resources. Some of the organizations aren't all they could be. I think it's going to take some facilitation.

I wanted to reiterate how important it is to these local communities, how strategic this asset is, and where so many people in the outlying areas of Atlantic Canada are going to be if this isn't put in place. It could be something, but the way we're going it has the potential of dying out, and a lot of our rural areas with it.

[Ron Cannan, Conservative, Kelowna—Lake Country, BC]

It's at a crossroads, and I think it's very important that the association gets together to help retain that history and heritage in the community and the sense of community for future generations.

I wish you all the best. Thank you.

[Peter Connors]

Thanks.

On that question on the transfer of the licences and the selling of the quota, it's our hope.... The restriction we wanted to have put on that is that it would have to transfer to the next generation, so that intergenerational change can happen in order to sustain these communities.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Merrifield]

I'd be surprised if all of your membership would agree with that, because some of them would be compromising a tremendous amount of assets. But I don't know that. I'll let you answer that.

[Peter Connors]

No, I alluded to that. There are these two trains of thought. There is the individualistic interest and consideration and there's the community consideration.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Merrifield]

I know, and you're representing both here, so....

[Peter Connors]

It is so, yes.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Merrifield]

Okay. I thank you for that. It was interesting. I learned something here in this session.

Mr. Staples, thank you for your optimistic view of the airport, and congratulations on one of the greatest airports in Canada and in North America. Thank you very much for your presentation.

With that, we will suspend as we set up the next panel.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Merrifield]

We're going to call this meeting back to order. We are pleased that this is the last session of the day. We look forward to testimony from Dalhousie University and St. Mary's University.

We have Martha Crago from Dalhousie University. Thank you for being here, and we'll hear from you first. Then we'll go to Mr. Dodds from Saint Mary's after you. The floor is yours.

[Dr. Martha Crago, Vice-President, Research, Dalhousie University]

Dalhousie University is approaching its 200th anniversary. I thought you would want to know that. The universities are old on this side of Canada.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Merrifield]

That's before Canada.