Public Accounts Committee on Oct. 19th, 2017

[Robert Sopuck, Conservative, Dauphin—Swan River—Neepawa, MB]

As we all know, Mr. Chair, a little knowledge is a dangerous thing.

Yes, I have a number of commercial fishing operations in my constituency who sell to the Freshwater Fish Marketing Corporation, and in a previous life as a fisheries biologist for Manitoba, I dealt directly with the FFMC.

One of the things I found a bit surprising about the discussion was the use of the generic word “fish”. It's quite clear you're basically a walleye marketing organization, right? What proportion of the income of the Freshwater Fish Marketing Corporation comes from the walleye, or what are called pickerel?

[David Bevan]

That is the biggest source of our profitability. However, I would point out that we've made progress with respect to whitefish. We've had a significant problem—

[Robert Sopuck, Conservative, Dauphin—Swan River—Neepawa, MB]

I understand that, but right now, in dollars and cents terms, the walleye are about 75% of your gross sales, right?

[Stan Lazar]

As regards profitability, walleye is the most profitable species. However, volume-wise, whitefish is the most volume the corporation sells.

[Robert Sopuck, Conservative, Dauphin—Swan River—Neepawa, MB]

Right. But again, you have a range, from high-value species like walleye, going down to whitefish, then pike, then your mullet and carp, and so on, and then the various products from each of these species, such as roe, and each with a different value, right?

[Stan Lazar]

Correct.

[Robert Sopuck, Conservative, Dauphin—Swan River—Neepawa, MB]

Is it safe to say you have an overreliance on walleye?

[Stan Lazar]

Walleye accounts for a large portion of our profitability.

[Robert Sopuck, Conservative, Dauphin—Swan River—Neepawa, MB]

Yes. I know it's the biggest. It's well over half, if not more.

The Manitoba government has chosen to withdraw from the Freshwater Fish Marketing Corporation, instituting—quote, unquote—marketing choice. It's quite clear once there's marketing choice and private buyers in the market, that they will target the high-value walleye primarily for purchase. Would you say that's a fair assessment?

[Stan Lazar]

Honestly, it's not my role to comment on what the Manitoba government believes.

[Robert Sopuck, Conservative, Dauphin—Swan River—Neepawa, MB]

No. This is what I believe, that the buyers will target walleye. I mean, that's only common sense. They're the highest-value fish.

[Stan Lazar]

I'm sure that's possible.

[Robert Sopuck, Conservative, Dauphin—Swan River—Neepawa, MB]

I can guarantee it.

The thing is, once you have competitors for high-value walleye from road-accessible fisheries, like Cedar Lake, Lake Winnipegosis, and Lake Winnipeg, that will take a very large bite out of the corporation's profits, potentially. That is a risk you have to think about. Is that correct?

[David Bevan]

Yes, that is a risk we have to worry about. That's why the corporation, in evaluating that risk, has developed the strategy of entering into contracts with fish suppliers. If you're a fisherman, you need to make a decision if you're going to work with the corporation and sell all your fish, or if you are going to move outside that and try to live off walleye and worry about the other species on your own. That's a decision they have to make, and we've been entering into contracts to try to mitigate the risk that you raised.

[Robert Sopuck, Conservative, Dauphin—Swan River—Neepawa, MB]

Don't mistake me; I'm not trying to be pejorative here. That's a tough environment you're facing, and as I said, I'm sure the private buyers will target the fish that you want and they'll offer prices that will be very attractive to the fishermen.

One thing also I didn't hear anybody talk about, either the auditors or you, was the issue of fishery sustainability. The Lake Winnipeg fishery right now, which the FFMC depends on, is in a very fragile state. Basically FFMC has relied on Lake Winnipeg for a significant portion of its income. Is that correct?

[Stan Lazar]

That's correct.

[Robert Sopuck, Conservative, Dauphin—Swan River—Neepawa, MB]

Okay, it stands to reason. It's close to Winnipeg, is road accessible, and so on.

Do you pay a premium for the fishermen to target large female walleye?

[Stan Lazar]

We do not for male or female, but we do have different prices for the sizing of all our species.

[Robert Sopuck, Conservative, Dauphin—Swan River—Neepawa, MB]

Large fish are given a higher price. Is that fair?

[Stan Lazar]

It depends on the species.

[Robert Sopuck, Conservative, Dauphin—Swan River—Neepawa, MB]

I'm talking about walleye now.

[Stan Lazar]

We did increase walleye prices recently.

[Robert Sopuck, Conservative, Dauphin—Swan River—Neepawa, MB]

For the large fish.

[Stan Lazar]

For larger fish.

[Robert Sopuck, Conservative, Dauphin—Swan River—Neepawa, MB]

Yes, that's devastating from a sustainability standpoint, and I'm shocked that you don't consider that a risk. Targeting the most valuable individuals in a fish population is tantamount to raping that population. I know fish management is not your concern necessarily, but if and when that Lake Winnipeg walleye fishery collapses, what are you going to do then?