Mr. Speaker, I rise today to bring light to the crisis facing the east coast fishery.
My question last week to the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans was for him to call a judicial inquiry into the past and current practices and policies of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans. With all four opposition parties plus scientists and bureaucrats from within the departments, plus the Department of the Environment, not to mention thousands of fishers in Atlantic Canada and Quebec calling for the same inquiry, it appears to all of us that only the minister is opposed to calling an inquiry.
His position reminds me of a line I heard in a movie which indicates to me that he cannot handle the truth. Only an open judicial inquiry would allow scientists from within the department to state openly their concerns without fear of job retribution.
Only an inquiry will be able to find solutions to the crisis not only on the east coast but on the west coast as well. Our stocks of various species of fish are reaching dangerously low levels and without strong measures may never recover.
The minister of human resources announced the other day that he has hired an individual to look at the concerns facing the 40,000 fishers on our east coast as the income supplement known as TAGS runs out one year prematurely in May 1998.
I suspect that he did this to deflect certain criticism bound to come to the government from the upcoming attorney general's report. The report coming out this week is sure to be very critical of the government's handling of not only the TAGS program but the management, or should I say mismanagement, of the groundstock species.
A system such as the individual transfer quotas or ITQs have taken 50 percent of the total quotas away from individual fishers and moved them into the hands of a handful of corporations. As well, 20 percent of additional quotas are sold from individual fishers to the corporations. In truth the corporations control 70 percent of the total allowable catch.
With the modern high tech methods incorporated in today's fishing industries, tonnes of fish can now be caught indiscriminately within a matter of hours using no more than a couple of dozen fishers, where before fish were caught more selectively using hook and line methods, using the services of hundreds of fishers and smaller vessels.
The nets used by draggers on the huge trawlers sometimes break away from the ship, lying on the ocean floor, indiscriminately killing anything in their path, not to mention the trawler gear that rips up the ocean floor, destroying precious corral and reef habitats. Just last week two whales off the east coast were seen tangled up in nets.
Other examples of concern are the dumping of by-catches which is still ongoing. As well, the number of gun-toting fishing officers is ever increasing. It is also true that with the hundreds of different organizations involved in the fishing industry there are hundreds of different ideas of what should happen to cure the ills affecting the industry.
Today I ask all parties involved in the fishery on all three coasts to put aside their differences and work together to come up with a viable long term sustainable solution not only to bring back the stocks but to provide long term employment for as many Canadians as possible. I believe this process would be greatly enhanced by an inquiry.