Mr. Speaker, it is my pleasure to support Bill C-98, the Canadian Oceans Act. The provisions contained in the legislation will be of tremendous benefit to all Canadians. Most especially, they will bring new opportunity to those Canadians who live and work in our coastal regions. It is this economic opportunity I wish to focus on today.
Canada is such a large country that it is easy to overlook the fact that Canada is one of the world's great maritime nations. Our shores are bordered by three oceans: the Arctic, the Atlantic, and the Pacific. Our coastline is the longest in the world. We have the world's largest archipelago, the world's longest inland waterway, and the world's second-largest continental shelf.
All this is about to get bigger in terms of doing a lot more out to the 200-mile limit. Under the terms of the 1992 United Nations convention on the law of the sea, which came into force in November last year, Canada can turn its 200-mile fishing zone into a 200-mile exclusive economic zone. This gives us the right to extend Canadian economic environmental jurisdiction over almost
five million square kilometres of coastal and ocean territory. The result is oceans of opportunity: opportunity to better protect our oceans' fragile resources, opportunity to strengthen our historic fisheries, and opportunity to channel creative energy towards a new ocean industry that can enhance the economic potential of our coastal communities.
This is an opportunity our government recognized as essential for our future, and it is an opportunity our government intends to act upon to secure jobs and economic growth for all Canadians.
For centuries the wealth of our oceans has sustained hundreds of communities, large and small, all along our Pacific, Atlantic, and Arctic coasts. In each region an entire culture and identity has been built around the exploitation of our ocean resources and maritime economy, especially around the three pillars of fishing, transportation, and tourism. However, in recent years these traditional activities have been supplemented by an increasing variety of new ocean-related industries, each with its own success story.
For instance, with our world demand for protein from fish on the rise, aquaculture has become one of the fastest growing industries in Canada. With successful operations on both our east and west coasts, aquaculture revenues reached $280 million in 1993.
At the same time, firms such as Geo-Resources, International Submarine Engineering, and others are leading the way in developing and applying high technology to oceans management and exploration. In Atlantic, Pacific, and central Canada, firms specializing in remote sensing, computerized geographic imaging, cold water technology, offshore and coastal engineering, and new sectors are creating thriving new enterprises capable of competing in the changing global marketplace.
Furthermore, we are now realizing the promise of ocean energy exploration and development. After years of patience and investment, the Cohasset oil field to the southeast of Nova Scotia came onstream in June 1992. The giant Hibernia oil field off the coast of Newfoundland is scheduled to go into commercial production in 1997. Just this year, there have been new discoveries in Newfoundland itself.
These are all positive developments. What is more, they come not a moment too soon. Canadians cannot escape the fact that our oceans are under increasing stress from such factors as overfishing, marine and land based sources of pollution, and longer term phenomena such as global warming.
The collapse of our Atlantic groundfish industry has left some 40,000 Canadians out of work. While lobster, crab, and scallop fisheries are prospering, the Pacific salmon fishery is requiring closer and more careful management than ever.
Clearly it is time to protect our marine environment and further diversify our marine economies. Our government has recognized both of these needs and we are taking action. We have acted in the international arena to strengthen the protection of straddling and highly migratory stocks. We have taken strong international action against overfishing and we are strictly enforcing fishing moratoriums on commercial fish stocks to give these resources a chance to rebuild.
These are just first steps. We need to back these up with an integrated and comprehensive approach to ocean management that emphasizes environmental conservation as its first priority. We need to accelerate and develop our ocean industry strategies so that our coastal economies will be able to diversify and prosper in the new global economy.