Mr. Speaker, it has been an interesting evening. A lot of the members who are speaking are maritime members. It is interesting to hear the focus on Atlantic Canadian issues, especially from those members who are not from Atlantic Canada. They are now starting to get at least a little impression about what Atlantic Canada is like, what we are about and some of the things we face.
I also find it incredible that we are talking about overfishing. I remember in 1991 when that great Newfoundlander John Crosbie made the incredibly tough decision to put a moratorium on fishery. It was a heart wrenching decision. Those of us who were here will never forget the anguish that he went through, and many of his colleagues went through, to shut down the fishery in his own province. It was a courageous move. He took an awful lot of criticism and ridicule over it but it was the thing to do and he put the moratorium on. Here we are 11 years later talking about overfishing.
The only reason we are here tonight is because the hon. member for St. John's West brought it up after a Russian vessel was arrested for polluting Canadian waters and it was discovered that it had illegal fish in the hull.
Why are we faced with it? It is because the rules have not been enforced; the NAFO agreement is not working; and the NAFO countries are not abiding by the rules and not respecting the fishery.
Another thing that I find incredible is the convergence of issues that we have been talking about today. We talked about species at risk all day. Here we are talking about a fishery on which there is a moratorium because the species are at risk and there is no enforcement. Here we are still talking about overfishing even though the species at risk is what we talked about all day. It is an amazing coincidence.
Another coincidence is the census that just came out that said that government policy, it did not specifically say government policy, is driving people out of rural Canada into the major population centres. It even identified Newfoundland and Labrador as the worst victim of this out migration.
It is not only the fishery policy, it is the economic development policy that has been slack for rural Canada, Atlantic Canada and other parts of the country.
It is policies like moving the department of Indian affairs Atlantic regional office from a small town called Amherst to a major centre because the bureaucrats want to move. There are 140 families that work for the Atlantic regional office of Indian affairs but it does not matter about the 140 families. There are a couple of bureaucrats who want to live somewhere else so they are actually considering moving this regional office.
It is policies that affect Canso, a small town in the riding of the hon. member for Pictou--Antigonish--Guysborough, which is completely shut down because of overfishing and fishing policies that have been abused and mismanaged over and over.
It is ironic that we are talking about the Faroe Islands which is under management by Denmark. Today we talked about our new ambassador to Denmark, Mr. Gagliano, who will now go over there and speak on our behalf on these issues.
Tonight someone mentioned the debate we had on softwood lumber and how the Prime Minister was involved in that debate. However in less than three hours from now the Americans will probably be successful in putting a huge countervail charge or export tax, or whatever on this resource. This is another resource that is being battered around by foreigners in the same way our fishery is.
It is ironic and amazing how many things converge on these issues because of government policy, lack of action, lack of policy, lack of administration, lack of enforcement and management by dealing with a crisis only.
I believe that tonight we will make some headway on this issue. I believe it will get some attention. It might have just been a little announcement that a Russian ship was caught for pollution charges and found that there was fish in the hull. Thanks to the hon. member for St. John's West who brought our attention to it and who created so much focus on it and raised public awareness.
It is interesting to hear all the speakers from all over Atlantic Canada, Scarborough, British Columbia and everywhere else become involved in this. We are starting to the get the impression that maybe there is a little awareness about the situation that people in Atlantic Canada are facing over this fishery.
When it first happened, and for 10 years maybe, the attitude was that there is a problem down there, let us throw some money at it and maybe it will go away. However, that is not the case. Money is not going to fix this. This is a way of life and it is a heritage. It is a tradition that has not been protected and it has been abused.
Perhaps now the government will take action to take control one way or another over the nose and tail of the Grand Banks and the Flemish Cap and really protect our resource. There is no reason why foreigners should be able to fish that area dry, dump their bilge waters, abuse our waters and our fish, and our systems and environment with no enforcement or repercussions.
Hopefully this debate will generate some interest and some focus on it. We know there are not enough fisheries officers, patrol boats, or helicopters. We know there are not enough resources put into the fishery to protect it and enforce the rules. Because of that NAFO countries are running roughshod over our rules and our fishery.
This was a Russian ship under Icelandic control. How many other ships are out there from how many other countries doing this? How many are doing the same thing that we do not catch because they do not dump their bilge water? It is a crisis and hopefully we will get some action.
We need a real plan. There are some options and it is certainly encouraging to hear government members talking about this. I hope they speak tomorrow to their colleagues, to their minister, to their Prime Minister as we have been for a long time. It is healthy and encouraging to hear this.
We are talking about the health of our communities in Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Labrador, New Brunswick, P.E.I., and Quebec as well. The accidental boarding of this ship was a stroke of luck. It was certainly a stroke of luck and good management. The hon. member for St. John's West ensured that it did not slip through the cracks and we got the attention on it.
With regard to Denmark, I picked up a report a few minutes ago from the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization called “Canadian Assessment of Compliance in the NAFO Regulatory Area”. Lo and behold, the meeting was held in Helsingor, Denmark, which again is the parent country of the Faroe Islands which today was isolated from our ports. So a lot of different approaches are tied together. They all come together in this whole story but this is an incredible report which was given just two months ago in Denmark.
It says Canada is increasingly concerned about the unacceptable level of non-compliance fisheries and it goes on to detail the incredible circumstances. Observers reported one CP had 655 fishing days in shallow water and 40% of these days were clearly utilized for moratoria species. On these days a catch of moratoria species was five times that of legal fish. What happened to them? Was there any enforcement or protection? No, there was not. There was nothing done to protect our resources.
Legitimate shallow water fisheries do occur for skate and redfish. During the remaining 400 days that operator harvested at a daily rate of 18% of non-moratoria fish. This is incredible.
The Canadian assessment confirmed that directed fishing and excessive bycatch on moratoria species was rampant. Exceeding allocations and misreporting was frequent. Directed fishing after closure was always increasing, frequency of net size violations was everywhere. There were always non-submissions or late submissions of observer reports.
In 2001 one of the contractors exceeded its Greenland halibut allocation by 23%, that is 3,000 tonnes. In 2001 there was a significant misreporting of 3L shrimp and 3M shrimp, particularly in December. What happened? Nothing happened nor was there any enforcement or any repercussions.
In 2001 two contractors fished in excess of 100 days yet reported catches within the quota. In 2001 the requirement for each contractor to limit the number of vessels fishing shrimp in 3L at any one time to one vessel was ignored. It goes on and on. It is an incredible report and everybody should read it.
Another violation refers to mesh size. Vessels from one contractor continually used small mesh gear and liners in the 3O redfish fishery. Over a period of just 30 days Canadian and EU inspectors issued four citations for use of small mesh gear or liners to vessels from this contractor. Citations, but what happened? Nothing.
These are the reasons why our fisher people in Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia and Canso are all out of work. In 2000 three contractors did not submit any reports. In 2001 six have yet to submit a single observer report. This is the Canadian report just presented two months ago. In a total of 200 shrimp reports 80% of a total estimated requirement of 250 have not been submitted. As one of the members said it is one thing to have regulations but if we do not enforce them it is the same thing as not having them.
Non-compliance in the NAFO regulatory area was increasing. Non-compliance was increasing, not decreasing. The deterrence capacity of some contracting parties enforcement programs was questionable given the frequency and continuing nature of non-compliance. Nobody was even trying to stop it.
The report indicated that many contracting parties did not review observer reports or respond to clear incidents of non-compliance. It stated that the continued discrepancy between observer reports and dock side inspections had yet to be resolved. NAFO was not going to do anything about it. It just said it had to be resolved. It just goes on and on.
The report recommends that Fisheries Canada should consider and adopt specific management and conservation measures to stop significant incidents of non-compliance. That makes sense. Why does it not do it? It adds that this should include effective measures to stop directed fisheries for moratoria species and stop misreporting excessive catches.
It recommends the following next steps: verification and reconciliation of all dock side inspections and observer reports should be implemented; standardization of sanction regimes for mesh size; increasing interaction between inspectors and observers at sea; providing real time observer reports to NAFO and inspecting contractors to guide sea and dock side inspections.
This is not in the report but it was said tonight more than once. The people in the industry must be involved; they must have input. They must have some control over fisheries management. Time after time these are the people who have been proven correct. They have been proven knowledgeable and they have been proven right.
There are three options available. Canada must demand that NAFO takes action to enforce quota allocation. It must do that. It is only fair. Canada must claim custodial management over the Grand Banks and the Flemish Cap. We should extend unilateral jurisdiction over the entire continental shelf, nose and tail of the Grand Banks. Finally, the fishery inspection infrastructure and equipment must be brought up to snuff. It must be brought up to an adequate situation so it can handle enforcement and control of the fishery.
We have seen our fishery devastated. It is 11 years after the moratorium and we are still standing here talking about it. I hope John Crosbie is not hearing this discussion tonight.