Mr. Speaker, this is a bill of stealth, dressed up as modernization. This bill gives the minister and thus the senior bureaucracy all the power they could ever possibly want to reward their friends and consolidate their strength and powers.
All this is coming from what is characterized as the most centralized, top heavy and arrogant bureaucracy in the federal government. It is amazing to me how the consolidation of powers in this bill can be characterized as modernization. Thank goodness I have not spent my life in academia to buy this logic hook, line and sinker like some Liberals in this place.
In 1995 DFO and the coast guard merged. And guess what? The DFO senior bureaucracy won the turf war which it was so well placed to win in the Ottawa trenches since its last priority was serving the public. British Columbians have seen the negative consequences to coast guard services on the west coast ever since.
There is one thing that I would like to state very clearly. There is nothing the government can do under the new fisheries act, Bill C-62, that it cannot already do under the existing act except extinguish the public right to fish. The central and deplorable change with respect to fisheries management is that the minister gains unfettered powers to do what currently requires the specific authorization of Parliament or cabinet. The power has become the intoxicating element of Canada's proposed fisheries act. For a minister and department that have singlehandedly mismanaged this resource so completely to be handed even more absolute power would be a derogation of the trust placed in us as parliamentarians.
Bill C-62 is further testimony to the government's inability to manage and allocate a resource and further testimony to the government's refusal to honour historic common law regarding the public right to fish.
Despite Supreme Court decisions to the contrary, this bill will also ensure the continuation of a native only commercial fishery. This legislation is contrary to any enlightened and cogent advice proffered by the fishing industry, unions, commercial and recre-
ational fishermen and anyone who knows anything about the industry.
All the bill really accomplishes is to give the minister complete discretion to enter into fisheries management agreements with any group. It is a recipe for a patchwork, piecemeal and divisive fisheries policy. How in the world could the minister allow his bureaucrats to once again snow him by holding him captive to his own ignorance and ego?
Bill C-62 gives the minister the power to end the public right to fish and replaces this time honoured tradition with private fishing agreements, or what the bill calls partnership agreements.
There is an expression in the banking business which goes something like this: "If you owe the bank $1,000 you are a debtor. If you owe it $1 million you are partner". With the omnipotent power Bill C-62 now gives to the minister I can see every good Liberal and financial contributor to the party becoming real partners with the minister and the government.
Ministerial fiats are dictatorial and an abuse of democracy. Can we see one town along the Fraser River in B.C. that votes Liberal becoming a partner and another town that does not becoming a debtor unable to strike a partnership agreement? This is outrageous power.
These fishing agreements would be similar to the aboriginal fishing agreements the government currently enters into with native bands. The native only commercial fishery was undermined by the Supreme Court's August 1996 R. v. Van der Peet, R. v. NTC Smokehouse Ltd. and R. v. Gladstone decisions. The court ruled against an aboriginal commercial right, saying they had no right to an exclusive fisheries. B.C. natives, to quote, "do not have a constitutional right to catch and sell fish commercially". Here we go again, more appealed decisions leading to Supreme Court rulings in order to bring the bureaucrats and their captive minister to their senses.
Bill C-62 expunges historic common law public right to fish in exchange for a privilege dependent on the discretion of the minister. This is pure and simple fiat perpetuated by this most centralized and arrogant bureaucracy and foisted upon a minister and he upon the public.
If this is not going far enough, Bill C-62 gives the minister absolute discretion to manage the fishery through ministerial decrees or what the bill describes as fisheries management orders. These orders would replace the regulations made by governor in council which are now used to govern the fishery. These fishing agreements and management orders are exempt from Canada Gazette publication and from its more rigorous regulatory requirements. It is sheer arrogance and purely meant to exempt the minister from the scrutiny of those who will most be affected.
Transparency and review are the hallmarks of our parliamentary system. If the Liberal government thinks the Reform Party will roll over and capitulate on this attempt to defraud Canadians of their rights, it is mistaken.
Do the minister and his bureaucrats truly believe that fiat and management through patronage will address the problems in the fishery?
Denial is a wonderful thing and it has become the hallmark of this government. According to it, there is no deficit, unemployment is not a problem, health care is secure and there is no crime. However, the undeniable truth is there are major problems in all these areas. If there is one area of endeavour where public confidence is weakest in terms of the ability of the federal government to properly manage it the fisheries.
On the east coast much of the fishery is closed due to the collapse of groundfish stocks. On the west coast the problems with the Alaskan catch of Canadian bound salmon are unresolved. Again on the west coast the salmon fishery, the key stock, is in disarray. There has been almost no non-native commercial fishery on the Fraser River for the past two years and now, should that ever change, Bill C-62 will ensure that good Liberals can be awarded with the catch.
Furthermore, the undeniable truth is that the government's native only commercial fishery is a mess. Our brilliant bureaucrats and the minister introduced a native only commercial fishery based on the expectation that the Supreme Court would hold that natives did have such a right. I guess that is why the Supreme Court judges and others working at fisheries and oceans regional headquarters in Vancouver do not yet work for the justice department.
As I mentioned earlier, the Van der Peet, NTC Smokehouse and Gladstone decisions highlight DFO's lack of authority to enter into exclusive fishing agreements with aboriginals. Now these same minds want to carry it a step further and enter into exclusive commercial fishing agreements with Liberal friends. Once again the legislation before us is an attempt to extinguish the public right to fish.
Bill C-62 may run nearly 100 pages. It need not have. There is a lot of verbiage intended to obfuscate the central element of the legislation. Specific to the management of fisheries, there is nothing the government can do under the new fisheries act that it cannot already do under the existing act, except extinguish the public right to fish.
With respect to partnership agreements, the minister has absolute discretion to enter into agreements which include provisions on allocation.
The response to Bill C-62 has been universal in condemnation. Fisheries unions fear that this power will be used to allocate fish stocks to large corporations. Recreational fishermen fear allocations to commercial interests. Commercial troll fishermen fear allocations to sports fishing lodges. Corporations fear allocations to inshore fishermen. Commercial fishermen fear allocations to native interests. It is an all around alienation of everyone in one fell swoop. What a statement of mismanagement and an undermining of a resource struggling to survive. The death knell may have finally rung.
Does the minister understand completely what the bill does? I doubt it. Does the senior bureaucracy understand completely? Undoubtedly.
Virtually all commercial and recreational fishing organizations in B.C. oppose the new act and wish to preserve the public right to fish. While commercial fishermen desire increased security of tenure, they feel that the loss of the public's right to fish in exchange for a privilege granted by the minister reduces their security and transfers too much power to the minister.
In the Atlantic provinces opposition appears to be growing for the same reasons.
Bill C-62 does not address the real problems in the fishery, for example, declining stocks, problems with Alaskan interception and the need for strict enforcement of conservation measures.
Bill C-62 is a desperate attempt to deal with the government's political problems, that is, what to do with the native only commercial fishery and the growing awareness that the present Fisheries Act does not give the minister the authority to enter into exclusive fishing agreements. There are some simple solutions to the problem. Clear criteria ought to be established for the transfer of fisheries management to the provinces. Fish tend not to notice political boundaries.
On the east coast chaos could result if one or all of the coastal provinces were to take over management of the coastal fishery. There is a need for comprehensive consultation, not abrogation, by granting the minister such discretion.
As well, clear criteria ought to be established for any transfer to the provinces of responsibilities for the protection of fish habitat. Provinces now regulate forestry, agricultural practices, urban development and waste. Why not fish habitat?
As usual the minister has chosen the easy route on this, but as usual it is ultimately the most divisive and destructive route. Bill C-62 expunges equal access to fishing and replaces it with granting fishing licences by political party membership. Bill C-62 replaces ownership of fish stocks by all Canadians to ownership by the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans.
The unilateral actions displayed in this bill and the lack of protection of the public interest coming from DFO are no surprise to people involved in coastal marine activities. I will quote myself on some recent coast guard initiatives that were promoted by the newly merged DFO bureaucracy.
On October 24 I said: "The hole's been patched but the ship's still sinking about the coast guard's reprieve for boats in Powell River, Campbell River and Ganges.
"While the coast guard is leaving the Mallard , Point Race and Skua where they are for the time being, nothing has changed because we have still not heard a clear vision from the Canadian Coast Guard and the Department of Fisheries and Oceans about long term objectives. We still have a top-heavy bureaucracy in DFO in Ottawa and in the regions that does not appear responsive to maintaining a safe waterway on the west coast. Nor do they appear to be forthcoming in providing accurate and timely information about their intentions.
"The coast guard, in August, announced that bases in Powell River and Ganges would close, the vessels would be reassigned and the 70-foot Point Race , stationed in Campbell River, would be moved to Port Hardy. On Tuesday the coast guard announced that temporarily Powell River's Mallard , the Point Race and French Creek's Kestrel would remain at their current stations, along with the Skua in Ganges.
"What we want is a world class marine service that enables safe and efficient marine operations on Canada's coasts. This latest announcement by the coast guard does not deliver this assurance. The announced changes are a case of the bureaucracy trying to wait out and defuse the most vocal opposition.
"The fact that the coast guard did not even mention the issue of lightstations in its latest announcement shows that its plans to press ahead with its agenda using the `damn the torpedoes' approach. The fleet reduction plan is based on a complete focus on downsizing and does not address the delivery of a first class marine service.
"We have been offered a piecemeal solution that addresses some symptoms but does not get to the heart of the problem which is: Where is this new department headed and what is its vision for west coast marine services?
"It appears that DFO's bureaucrats have won the fight for control of the newly amalgamated department. DFO and the coast guard were asked independently about the time of their merger last year to offer spendings cuts. Both DFO and Canadian coast guard identified the same $30 million in spending cuts. These cuts were double counted and the coast guard component of the newly
merged department has borne this $30 million extra cutback from Treasury Board".
I am still quoting myself, just so the House understands the flow: "The U.S. has a clear coast guard objective which involves using people and technology to ensure their coastline has first class navigation and marine services. The Reform Party has addressed the whole issue of creating such an environment in Canada in its recently announced platform which calls for amalgamating coast guard into the Department of National Defence and providing more resources for fishery surveillance and coast guard activities.
"I urge everyone whose battle for the maintenance of services to keep up the fight. I fully credit the efforts of those who have pursued the issue tirelessly with having won this temporary reprieve which helps us for the time being in the lower coast. However, the immediate future for the north coast already looks dire with an already skimpy presence having been further diluted.
"The coastal communities and advisory groups and stakeholders must continue to press for rationalizing the huge bureaucracy in Ottawa and the regions and to press for world class marine services".
For all of those reasons I oppose Bill C-62.