Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to see this bill return to the House at report stage.
In a previous life in a past Parliament I had the privilege to chair the Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans. I thank all members of that committee, including the current chair, the hon. member for Egmont, for the diligent work which was done by them in looking at this bill.
I also commend the hon. member for Skeena who was on the committee. He showed that he has a deep interest and a very deep understanding of the requirement of governments to look periodically at the way they do things with a measure toward doing them a little better, with a little more consistency and a little more efficiency.
With respect to the comments which were made a moment ago by our colleagues in the Bloc Quebecois, I would have to say unfortunately that I cannot be as magnanimous. Some of the amendments which I see in this first batch are not reflective of the support the bill received from a wide variety of sources as we deliberated it in committee. The Bloc Quebecois seemed more interested not in improving the bill but in making statements about Quebec sovereignty and jurisdiction. That is unfortunate but as every committee member has the right to do, their time is their own. It is their own nickel and they can do with it as they see fit.
I cannot help but note that the amendments put forward by the Bloc Quebecois in no way reflected the testimony we heard. Some of the amendments that were put forward by the Reform Party, some of which I did not agree with, had some basis in fact. Individuals we heard had different points of view on various aspects of the bill and the member from the Reform Party would find some support there.
This bill is very long overdue. The individuals we heard from in the environmental sector, the individuals who are most impacted by this bill said that this bill was too long in coming. They applauded that the bill had been put forward. Many had different points of view about various aspects of the bill and suggestions as to how those various aspects could be improved upon. However, they all agreed that an oceans act was long overdue.
With a country like Canada and its maritime coastal zones from sea to sea to sea which is one of the longest continuous coastlines in the entire world, most said it was high time there was some order put into the very statutes and programs the federal government administers which have an impact on the marine resource. This bill seeks to consolidate under one minister, one department and one act much of that activity and much has been done. Over 14 different programs or departmental areas are under one jurisdiction now, that is, the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans.
There was a lot of to-ing and fro-ing from various bureaucrats and various ministries as to why some of the jurisdictional issues should best be left with environment or with natural resources. I argued then as I will today that the oceans act is a good first step but that we must continue to look at some of the areas that might be
better placed directly under the jurisdiction of the minister of fisheries.
I think of some pieces of legislation that are currently with the Minister of the Environment dealing with deep ocean dumping and also with the Arctic Ocean that should be further studied by a committee of this place, perhaps a subcommittee or a joint committee of the fisheries and oceans committee and the environment and sustainable development committee. There has been some discussion and I hope this is not seen as the end of this work but is seen to be the very important beginning of a longer examination.
There were some great witnesses. We heard from many witnesses. We heard from Canadian Arctic Resource Council which was instrumental in guiding us through this bill. When people asked what kind of consultation had been done before the bill came before the Parliament of Canada, all one had to do was look at the CARC brief. CARC had worked for quite a long time and had become the spokesperson for dozens and dozens of interested organizations and groups. When it came down to the short strokes, CARC was instrumental in assisting me as chairman and assisting the committee in coming up with some of the words and some of the amendments that further clarified this bill and made it a better piece of legislation.
I want to thank the people at the World Wildlife Fund, Greenpeace, the many fishermen we heard from, and many others who had an interest and came forward. In every case they came forward with the express interest not of scuttling the bill, not of putting it off, but of genuinely trying to improve it.
This bill works on a precautionary principle. It works on the principle of sustainable development. It clearly indicates that the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans has the primary responsibility in various areas dealing with sustainable development, the marine resource.
It instils in the minister the responsibility to take a co-ordinated approach with his cabinet colleagues and departments to ensure that those principles are the primary principles under which all government programs and legislation is reviewed with respect to Canada's oceans. That is very important.
One of the most important things that has happened and which the bill speaks to is it also ensures there is a new terminology on the Canadian political landscape, which is marine protected areas. For many years environmentalists such as those in CARC and the World Wildlife Fund, fishermen and the Nunavut have indicated very clearly that there is a need for the establishment of marine protected areas in Canadian legislation. These are areas with such unique ecosystems that they must be protected under Canadian law. Someone has to take charge and make sure there is a single individual with the responsibility to protect those areas of our oceans with unique ecosystems. That has been established in this bill. It is probably one reason this bill has received so much public attention and support.
I want to close by indicating how pleased I am that the government with the support of the main parties in the House have agreed to bring this bill back. One concern I had when we ended the last session was that the very good work done by committees would have been for naught.
In this case the committee can stand proud and show that all members, no matter what their political stripe, can have a very positive impact on legislation that goes through this place. There is no question there were some problems. I mentioned that the Bloc Quebecois continued to put amendments forward and they will defend those amendments in the House.
Those amendments were not supported by any testimony we heard. Rather they were a part of their political ideology and philosophy that at every turn in the road they will try to attack anything that even looks like a humiliation of the province of Quebec or that somehow every piece of federal legislation is trying to take something away from provincial jurisdiction. I can say with a clear mind and a clear conscience there is nothing in the bill which takes away from any provincial jurisdiction, including Quebec.
It is unfortunate that the only real problem we had when examining this bill was when we heard from the fishermen and plant workers from Nova Scotia. The problem we had was that an irresponsible member of the provincial legislature, a New Democrat, Mr. Chisolm, who has since gone on to be the leader of the New Democratic Party in Nova Scotia, almost incited the fishermen and the fish plant workers into a riot by saying that the bill was going to impose fees, privatize the fishery, and all of these ugly things that people on this side of the House do not support.
What he did was very reckless. My understanding is that Mr. Chisolm, who I guess aspires to be the premier of the province of Nova Scotia some day, did not even bother to read the bill before he set out on his task of going around the province delivering misinformation at every turn of the road. I am sure that Mr. Chisolm has lost some of his personal charisma because the men and women from the fishery who chose to appear before the committee did have a concern and listened to what we had to say. I hope today they are supporting the report of the committee that the bill goes forward expeditiously and finally we will have the Canada Oceans Act proclaimed as law.