House of Commons Hansard #171 of the 37th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament's site.) The word of the day was children.

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Inter-American Convention to Prevent and Punish TorturePrivate Members' Business

5:55 p.m.

The Deputy Speaker

The hour provided for the consideration of private members' business has now expired. The order is dropped to the bottom of the order of precedence on the order paper.

A motion to adjourn the House under Standing Order 38 deemed to have been moved.

FisheriesAdjournment Proceedings

5:55 p.m.

Progressive Conservative

Loyola Hearn Progressive Conservative St. John's West, NL

Mr. Speaker, a couple of weeks ago I raised a question about overfishing and it has been followed up on several occasions since then. We drew to the attention of the House and the minister the fact that we have a severe problem, which has existed for years, but, with the exception of an intervention every now and then by the government, very little has been done. However an awareness has been created.

Let me thank the member, who I perhaps insulted a few moments ago, the chair of the fisheries committee, for his tremendous work in helping to educate the House, the members of his committee and, I would say, a lot of Canadians generally about the pillage that has taken place off the east coast of Newfoundland.

The member not only held hearings on the issue of overfishing, he also agreed to bring his committee to the province of Newfoundland and Labrador where we heard from everyone involved in the industry, from the towns that have been affected as a result of the destruction of our resource and also from interested parties. It was an education.

The members of the committee came back and, without exception, stood and spoke strongly on this issue during the debate that we had here in the House.

However, during that time a Russian vessel called the Olga came into St. John's and, by accident, someone--not the department because when I raised the issue with the minister he admitted that he did not know about it--discovered that the boat contained 49 tonnes of large, breathing codfish, a species that is under moratorium, a species we are not allowed to catch, a species that has been wiped out over the years by seal herds, by foreign overfishing and undoubtedly by our own interventions into the harvesting of the resource, but for whatever reasons a resource that has led, by its demise, to the closure of several fish plants and the displacement of several workers throughout the province of Newfoundland and Labrador and Canada generally.

I asked the minister what he was going to do about the contents of the boat. I asked him further about a sister ship which, on the same day, was supposed to land in St. John's and transfer its catch, as these boats do, back to the home country. When the word got out that cod had been discovered on boat number one, boat number two suddenly discovered it had a leak in the steering tube and headed off for Iceland. Undoubtedly that boat also contained product which it was not supposed to have.

I asked the minister if he would stop the boat and check it out to see if that was the case. I did not receive an answer to that question at all and I did not get much of an answer to what would be done with the first one.

Perhaps the parliamentary secretary, or whoever will answer, will educate me as to what the government has done so I can go home tonight feeling great about the interventions.

FisheriesAdjournment Proceedings

6 p.m.

Kitchener Centre Ontario

Liberal

Karen Redman LiberalParliamentary Secretary to the Minister of the Environment

Mr. Speaker, on behalf of the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans, I would like to thank the hon. member for St. John's West for his ongoing interest in the issue of foreign overfishing. I welcome this opportunity to say a few words on this very important issue.

The Government of Canada takes the issue of foreign overfishing very seriously. Overfishing affects some of Canada's most vulnerable communities. We saw an example of this recently.

During a port inspection of the Russian registered vessel Olga , DFO officials determined that the vessel had on board 49 tonnes of cod and 9 tonnes of skate that had been caught outside Canada's 200 mile limit. The relative amount of cod on board clearly indicated a directed fishery for this species that is contrary to the moratoria for all cod stocks in the NAFO regulatory area.

The Government of Canada took action. We immediately raised this issue with the Russian authorities. I am pleased to say that we are seeing results.

The Russian fisheries' representative in Halifax has advised Canada and NAFO that the Russian authorities are cancelling Olga 's licence to fish in NAFO waters for the remainder of this year and that they will conduct further investigations into this vessel's activities. The Canadian embassy in Moscow will meet with Russian authorities to ensure that a thorough investigation is made and that appropriate sanctions are levied. This is a clear indication that Russia has taken Canada's concerns with this vessel very seriously. The Olga is now in Iceland and we have requested that Icelandic authorities undertake a detailed inspection of the vessel and inform us of their findings.

Similar concerns have been raised in the Latvian registered vessel Otto but the situation with the Otto is different. On March 19 we authorized the Otto to enter a Canadian port to unload its cargo. The Otto 's agent advised DFO that the vessel would offload its catch in Iceland rather than in Canada.

At Canada's request, the Icelandic authorities undertook a full inspection of this vessel and gave us a copy of the dockside inspection report. The report indicated that no irregularities were found. Quite simply, the Otto was not involved in any illegal fishing.

These are just two examples of the Government of Canada taking action on allegations of foreign overfishing. Indeed Canada will not tolerate the wilful abuse of NAFO quotas and rules. When such allegations arise, Canada will take up the matter with the proper authorities.

We have already demonstrated our resolve by closing our ports to Faeroese and Estonian fishing fleets because of non-compliance to NAFO rules and conservation measures. DFO officials are now closely monitoring the fishing activities of several other fleets to ensure compliance. If there is evidence of non-compliance, similar actions will be taken.

Canadians depend on DFO to manage this resource on their behalf and to manage it responsibly with an eye to the future. Fisheries and Oceans Canada continues to take this responsibility seriously and will continue to respond to allegations of foreign overfishing in an appropriate fashion.

FisheriesAdjournment Proceedings

6:05 p.m.

Progressive Conservative

Loyola Hearn Progressive Conservative St. John's West, NL

Mr. Speaker, let me thank the parliamentary secretary for her reply. I am pleased with some of the actions the department has taken. I do know that the present minister takes this issue seriously.

However, if I were a real estate salesman, I would make a fortune selling oceanfront property in Saskatchewan to the government opposite because it claims there is no problem. Show it a manifest and there is no problem. Absolutely everything checked out with the Otto because somebody flashed the manifest.

During this past week a boat came in to Bay Roberts and flashed the manifest. However, when the manifest was scrutinized and one looked beyond it, one could see all kinds of abuse taking place in the fishing area.

The government is not doing everything it can. It only moved on the Olga because we brought it to its attention. We embarrassed it into making a move. With the Otto , again someone looked at the manifest.

Taking a licence from one boat will not control overfishing. Canada has to exert its influence over the nose and tail and the Flemish cap. How can we do that? We can do it by custodial management, extending jurisdiction or at least by using our position as the adjacent state that we are. Under the law of the sea we have both the right and the duty to exert our influence over conservation and control of the environment. The government has to do more. If it does not, it is the people of Atlantic Canada who will pay the price.

FisheriesAdjournment Proceedings

6:05 p.m.

Liberal

Karen Redman Liberal Kitchener Centre, ON

Mr. Speaker, our actions to date show that the government is willing to take a strong stand. We presented strong positions to protect fisheries at NAFO and we will continue to do this.

FisheriesAdjournment Proceedings

6:05 p.m.

The Deputy Speaker

I certainly do not want to get into a debate between the hon. member for St. John's West and the member from P.E.I. about fish and bulls and so on.

The motion to adjourn the House has now been adopted. Accordingly the House stands adjourned until tomorrow at 10 a.m. pursuant to Standing Order 24.

(The House adjourned at 6.08 p.m.)