Madam Speaker, I will be sharing my time tonight with the member for Skeena.
We congratulate the member for Labrador. We know that for him this is not just another issue, this is a heartfelt issue. We also congratulate the member for Bonavista—Trinity—Conception for bringing this very important issue to the House tonight on behalf of his constituents in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador.
This is not just an issue for Newfoundlanders. This is an issue that affects all Canadians. Newfoundlanders are our neighbours, although a little removed from where I live on Vancouver Island, but this is an issue on which we need to stand together. Canadians need to recognize that we are all Canadians and that even though we do not face the same realities every day, we can identify with life issues, the day to day, bread and butter issues of our neighbours, and that we need to stretch ourselves to do so.
The issue today is about the cod closure. A few days ago the minister announced the closure of three cod stocks in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and in the northeast of Newfoundland. He talked about bringing in conservation measures, about creating seal exclusion zones and no trawling zones, and about closing the recreational fishery in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and in the northeast of Newfoundland and Labrador for the next three years.
He has talked about community based economic development assistance of some $44 million over two years. He has talked about a $6 million investment in scientific research to evaluate and assess the impact of seals.
That is what the debate is about tonight. We heard a very impassioned plea from the member opposite on behalf of his constituents. I do not know how it can be said better than that. A lot of data has been presented tonight and most of the issues have been addressed but we want to bring a perspective to this debate from the other side of Canada because fisheries decisions do affect communities. They affect the communities that depend on natural resources. These decisions that are taken affect the stocks on the west coast as they do on the east coast.
I am pleased to say that up until recently I served with my colleagues on the fisheries committee for about two years. I appreciated the support we received from the committee on a very important fisheries issue in my riding involving the hake fishery. I appreciate that the committee took the trouble to come out to hear the issues on the west coast. The minister made a right decision on that fishery and we appreciated that. The fishery was managed on shore as it ought to be. There are still issues with that fishery but we appreciate that decision and the support of our colleagues.
However, in the same way, we on the west coast want to identify with the people of Newfoundland in their issues. This is a decision that involves all Canadians. It is a Canadian resource. It involves the custodial management of the Grand Banks which is part of our continental shelf. It is part of the shore on the continent on which we live and it is one of the most prolific fishing grounds that the world has ever known. Of course the closure is not directly out on the Grand Banks part, it is more inshore, but the issues overlap on the two areas.
In introducing this I want to allude to a couple of fisheries issues on the west coast because they are management issues. In fisheries management sometimes we make good decisions and sometimes, unfortunately, we make bad decisions, but whatever the decisions are, they influence people's livelihoods and it is the bad ones that are the most costly.
We have had our experience with bad fisheries decisions on the west coast and I will allude to one that is very current: the recent disaster in the fishery on the Fraser River. The minister just recently acknowledged the rather disastrous management issues on the Fraser River sockeye run. It is one of the largest runs in history. Some 15 million sockeye salmon swim up the Fraser River but only 3 million are allowed to be taken because of conservation concerns.
Some 12 million fish were allowed to swim by. It was about a $200 million loss to the commercial fishing fleet which has suffered greatly over the last number of years. The minister and his officials have now recognized that it was a mistake but the cost to the local fishermen and the cost in watching this huge resource swim past and not being allowed to catch them was a decision that really hurt the community and the people who were most affected by the fishery.
Another issue on which I want to touch base relates to aquaculture. The people on the west coast, as well as on the east coast, particularly in Newfoundland and Labrador and in New Brunswick, have big concerns relating to aquaculture. In my particular riding it is a huge issue right now. The concerns are science related. I am very pleased that the DFO is putting money into more science for aquaculture issues in relation to the interaction between wild stocks and aquaculture.
We have made bad decisions and good decisions. The provincial government had a moratorium on aquaculture sites because of the concerns of the day. However for many years new sites were not allowed and, frankly, that was a bad decision because it compounded some of the problems when the aquaculture sites were not allowed to relocate to less sensitive areas.
Right now there is a big issue with proposed siting all along the Alberni Inlet, which is a high traffic area for commercial and recreational fishing and in sight of a huge population. It is not a good location for siting. Maybe the forest industry could learn something about clearcutting right to the edge of the highway.
It was not a good decision and we are on the record as being opposed to that decision. We can have aquaculture in a lot of places but not in a high traffic area in the middle of a commercial fishery with a huge wild salmon run.
I want to go back to the issue of the day which has affected our friends from Newfoundland and the people on the east coast. Other members have addressed the fact that groundfish stocks were at an all time low in 1992 due to mismanagement and overfishing, but other issues are germane to this discussion today.
Historically, the people went to Newfoundland for one reason: the abundance of the fishing resource in one of the most prolific bodies of water on the face of the earth. It fell to us as Canadians and to the people of Newfoundland and Labrador to manage those resources but, sadly, we failed at being good managers of the resource.
In looking at this over the last number of years we can see why the stocks, in spite of the closure in 1992, failed to return. These have been alluded to but we need to go over them quickly.
If we do not get serious about rebuilding the cod stocks the communities will literally disappear. We do not need more Newfoundland communities in Edmonton, in Fort McMurray or in other places where Newfoundlanders find work. Frankly, we feel that on the west coast as well because, sadly, many of our young people, because of the downturns in forestry and fisheries, have ended up living in a province where they would prefer not to live but where they had to relocate. We want Newfoundlanders to have a chance to benefit from the resources in their area.
There are two main reasons why we failed to see the stocks recover. The obvious one, which we heard mentioned tonight, is the seal population. If we are to make a decision as Canadians, we need to make a courageous decision.
We have heard it said tonight that it is estimated that some 7.5 million to 8 million seals are in that area now, an area where a sustainable herd would be about 2.5 million seals. Each of these seals eat about a tonne of fish per year. That is a lot of tonnes of fish being eaten by seals. As has been said in debate before, seals do not eat the whole fish. They just take a bite out of the belly, eat the choice parts and the rest is left to rot on the sea bottom. It is a tragic waste.
I can well imagine how farmers would feel if wolves were jumping over fences and tearing the guts out of the sheep and lambs in the fields. What is the parliamentary word for this? If the wolves were eviscerating the sheep and leaving them bleeding and dying in the pastures I think there would be a call from Canadians to take action and cull the wolf packs that were taking out so many sheep.
As Canadians we need to do the right thing. We need to encourage the minister. He has increased the cull on seals to 350,000 a year over three years but it is not enough. We need to be realistic. We need to deal with the predation issue.
We also need to deal with the overfishing issue, the foreign overfishing off the nose and tail of the Grand Banks. The stocks do not stop at the 200 mile limit. They follow the continental shelf out to where the food supply is plentiful. With foreign overfishing beyond our 200 mile limit, the stocks go to where there is abundant food and they get siphoned off. It is like going down the drain. Foreign fishers keep taking our stocks.
That is one of the huge issues that must be addressed. The fisheries committee made an excellent report, recommending custodial management. Canada must do the right thing. It is our continental shelf. We must do the right thing by taking custodial management, managing the stocks, and giving the people of Newfoundland and Labrador a chance to prosper and profit from the resources. They can come back if we manage them properly.