International Trade Committee on May 23rd, 2024

[Damien Barry]

I would echo the comments of both Mr. Irvine and Mr. Lansbergen. Any person who can go out and advocate for the Canadian seafood sector internationally can only be a positive for the whole industry. I would agree with that.

[Tony Baldinelli, Conservative, Niagara Falls, ON]

That's great.

Mr. Pearce, do you have some comments on that?

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

You need to unmute yourself, sir.

Mr. Pearce, you're on mute. Can you please unmute yourself?

[Tony Baldinelli, Conservative, Niagara Falls, ON]

Damned pinnipeds.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

There will be a button there somewhere.

[Ken Pearce]

How's that? My apologies.

[Tony Baldinelli, Conservative, Niagara Falls, ON]

There we go.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

You have it. That's terrific.

Thank you.

[Ken Pearce]

I've been listening very attentively to what's going on in terms of the east coast. We don't have the kind of representation on the west coast that you appear to have, so I really can't add much to that.

Our specific mission is to bring back the salmon, which will bring back jobs and bring back the industry. I'll give you an example of what's happening here. For some very joyous reason, the pinnipeds disappeared from the Gulf of Georgia on the inbound salmon runs this year. We don't know where they've gone. We've got UBC Oceans working on it. We've got DFO working on it. Nobody can solve that puzzle.

The pinnipeds inflict a huge kill on salmon, both on the outbound smolts—50% of 100 million smolts going out get consumed—and then, to go on to my example, on the South Thompson chinook run, which averaged 150,000 to 200,000 over the last 10 years. Without the pinnipeds in the gulf this year, we got back 627,000, and we also got back 18 million pinks this year—direct impacts with the disappearance of the salmonoids being eaten by pinnipeds....

I'm not sure if that helps you, but that's what our focus is, and we're having trouble getting DFO through the hoops. This would provide—

[Tony Baldinelli, Conservative, Niagara Falls, ON]

I'll just end—

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

You have 30 seconds.

[Tony Baldinelli, Conservative, Niagara Falls, ON]

I'll just end with Mr. MacPherson on that whole notion of a fisheries ambassador.

[Ian MacPherson]

Yes, I think it's worth a wider discussion. I'll name three things just quickly: unprecedented changes in climate, volatility of markets and the impact of seals on both coasts. We need to adapt faster. To have a champion, someone who can help both sides of the industry to do that, I think would be a good thing.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Thank you very much, sir.

We'll go on to Ms. Fortier.

[Mona Fortier, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

Thank you, Madam Chair. I know my time will be cut short.

Mr. Lansbergen and Mr. Irvine, we know that climate change is currently impacting the fisheries and the Canadian seafood industry, a worrisome situation for this economic sector. In particular, there has been a 2°C increase in the temperature of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, which is having a huge impact on certain fisheries.

When it comes to protecting Canada's seafood sector, what can Canada do to ensure that its waters are able to literally sustain marine life, so as to avoid the loss of important aquatic ecosystems and species that are sources of revenue for the country and its fishers?

[Paul Lansbergen]

Thank you, Madam Chair. I'll be brief.

Canada has been one of the leaders in working with the Food and Agriculture Organization and other countries to better understand the climatic impacts that are happening in the world's oceans and trying to understand it more regionally within our own oceans. This is great.

We need to understand the climate impacts. We need to work collaboratively—government and industry— to understand what those impacts are on individual fisheries and to be transparent in how we evolve, in how we conduct the fisheries science that informs fisheries management decisions. That's important, but nobody is moving fast enough to truly get ahead of the curve.

[Mona Fortier, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

Thanks.

Mr. Irvine.

[Geoff Irvine]

I don't know what more Canada can do, but I can speak really quickly on the impacts.

In the lobster sector, we're seeing much higher lobster catches in much more northern parts of our range. In Newfoundland, parts of Quebec, Cape Breton and P.E.I., we're seeing a lot more lobster being caught in the northern part and far less being caught in the southern part, in the Gulf of Maine and the Bay of Fundy. That's clearly because of water temperature. The second impact is that more ferocious storms are impacting us and tearing apart wharves and infrastructure in P.E.I., Cape Breton and Newfoundland and Labrador.

We're being impacted dramatically by climate change, and we need to do more.

[Mona Fortier, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

Thank you.

I know my time is limited, and for the other witnesses we have, if you have answers to this question and want to submit them to the clerk, please do. It would probably help in answering that question.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Thank you very much to all of our witnesses. We very much appreciate your taking the time today to give us some valuable information.

I will suspend for a moment or two so that we can go into camera.

[Proceedings continue in camera]