International Trade Committee on May 23rd, 2024

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

As the Chair, I am suggesting that we hold this down until 5 p.m. If that is the will of the committee, that we hold it down, let me know. If the committee chooses to deal with it now, then we will deal with it now, but I'm asking for direction from the committee on which way you want to go with this issue.

We're going to suspend for a couple of minutes so that we sort out which way we're going with this.

[Simon-Pierre Savard-Tremblay, Bloc, Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot, QC]

Madam Chair, I don't know if we're ready to resume the meeting, but, if we do, I'd like to move that we adjourn the debate and return to the study.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

We have a motion by Mr. Savard-Tremblay to adjourn this debate and go back to what we were doing.

[Simon-Pierre Savard-Tremblay, Bloc, Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot, QC]

That said, the debate suits me just fine, but we'll have it in 20 minutes at most.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Exactly, and given the fact that this, I believe, was a motion that you introduced and that it's your study that we are doing, I think it makes sense.

All right, there's a motion on the floor to adjourn the debate until 5 o'clock. The motion is just to adjourn the debate. Correct?

[Simon-Pierre Savard-Tremblay, Bloc, Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot, QC]

Yes, I'm willing to debate, but in 20 minutes.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Exactly, so let's adjourn the debate, and we'll go back to it at 5 p.m., all right.

All those in favour of Mr. Savard-Tremblay's motion to adjourn the debate, please raise your hand.

(Motion agreed to)

All right, we will go back to this at five o'clock. My apologies to the witnesses.

This is your time. I had stopped the clock as soon as you got into—

[Kyle Seeback, Conservative, Dufferin—Caledon, ON]

That took over five minutes, so that was my time.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

That was your time on that issue? Okay.

[Kyle Seeback, Conservative, Dufferin—Caledon, ON]

Yes, that was my time.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

I have Mr. Arya, please, for five minutes.

[Chandra Arya, Liberal, Nepean, ON]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I have several questions for Mr. Lansbergen. I'll come to them, but before I do, I want to make a comment based on your answer to one of the questions.

You are unhappy with the amount of money that was provided in the previous budget. Every single witness who comes to this committee—at least, most of the witnesses—wants more taxpayers' money. The reason you're not satisfied with the money that has been provided is that, to quote you, it “costs profitability for companies”. I don't know how profitable your sector is and how much profit companies are earning, but to ensure more profits, you want taxpayers to fund more money in the budget.

Anyway, we'll discuss that later.

I want to refer to the Fisheries Council of Canada's October 23 report that said, “Ongoing development and maintenance of strong trade agreements is essential”. Is that correct? Okay.

We have signed so many agreements, but I see that the bulk of your exports is limited to three or four markets. Other than China, the U.S. and the European Union, Japan is the only market that has 3%. Why is it that the fisheries industry is not going after the other markets where we have signed free trade agreements?

[Paul Lansbergen]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

On diversification, we are selling to over 100 markets around the world. Yes, a bulk of it goes to a few. Like most sectors in the Canadian economy, the U.S. is our largest market.

Markets are integrated. The supply chain is integrated. That makes the most sense. China happens to be our second-largest market—

[Chandra Arya, Liberal, Nepean, ON]

I understand that, but the point is that we have been signing as many agreements as possible. We will continue to sign them. Hopefully, the focus will be beyond the North American market. While being dependent on one large market is good in the short run, in the longer run, the diversification to different markets is always helpful.

I have another question. Have you come across any non-tariff barriers outside of China and the U.S.?

[Paul Lansbergen]

On non-tariff barriers, the most recent ones have been in the countries you mentioned. We have been monitoring a few other countries where they are adjusting their own domestic regulations for food safety. They've been quite limited.

[Chandra Arya, Liberal, Nepean, ON]

Thank you.

How many fish and fisheries products are we importing?

[Paul Lansbergen]

Unfortunately, 70% of the domestic market is served by imported products. Of the three major commodities, a lot of salmon is imported farm salmon, but we export a lot of farm salmon as well. Wild Pacific salmon just isn't as plentiful as it used to be.

For shrimp, we import large-sized, warm-water shrimp, whether they be wild or farmed, from Argentina, Thailand, Indonesia or other countries—

[Chandra Arya, Liberal, Nepean, ON]

I'm sorry. I have limited time. I have just a couple more questions.

How big are our inshore fisheries?

[Paul Lansbergen]

I forget the exact amount of how much is harvested by the offshore fleet versus the inshore, but it's definitely a mix, and it varies significantly across different fisheries.

[Chandra Arya, Liberal, Nepean, ON]

On this open-net salmon farming, I'm not very familiar with the realities on the ground. Some First Nations communities support it. Some First Nations communities are opposed to it.

What is your stance, as the Fisheries Council of Canada?

[Paul Lansbergen]

We don't have a formal position on the impact of aquaculture on wild stocks.

[Chandra Arya, Liberal, Nepean, ON]

Don't you think, as the Fisheries Council of Canada, it is your responsibility to have a position?

[Paul Lansbergen]

Yes. As a board and a council, we do not have a formal position. If you want my personal opinion, I'm quite confident of both our wild capture fisheries and the aquaculture sector in Canada.

[Chandra Arya, Liberal, Nepean, ON]

At the end of the day, when we call you as a witness because we need—

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Mr. Arya, I'm sorry, but your time is up.

Mr. Savard-Tremblay, for two and a half minutes, please.