Mr. Speaker, I thank my hon. colleague from Chatham-Kent—Leamington for his interest in the file and for showing how important the issue is on both sides of the border.
On May 10, the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development tabled a report in the House titled “Governance of the Great Lakes Fisheries Commission.” This report followed a report from the Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans, FOPO, titled “Allocation of Resources to the Great Lakes Fisheries Commission”, which was tabled on November 29, 2023, a year ago.
In under six months, two standing committees of the House of Commons tabled reports on the Great Lakes Fisheries Commission. Canadians watching at home may be wondering what was happening at the Great Lakes Fisheries Commission that was so pressing that two standing committees prioritized resources and time to examine the governance and allocation of resources to the commission. The reason two standing committees studied the GLFC is that the Liberal government refused to correct a conflict of interest resulting from the machinery of government structure that still exists over the commission to this day.
It goes without saying that for the current government, conflict of interest is business as usual. This is especially true for the Prime Minister, who has repeatedly violated ethics rules and regulations, so it is not surprising that the Prime Minister himself came to be the problem when he refused to fix the conflict of interest involving the Department of Fisheries and Oceans and the Great Lakes Fisheries Commission.
A briefing document seeking a decision from the Prime Minister to fix DFO's conflict of interest with the Great Lakes Fisheries Commission through a machinery of government change was sent to the Prime Minister for a decision on April 12, 2022. Nearly two and a half years elapsed before it was finally announced, on September 10, that the PM had finally issued an order for the realignment of the Great Lakes Fisheries Commission, from under DFO to Global Affairs Canada.
At that time, the government claimed that the Prime Minister's order for which we waited two and a half years would finally resolve the conflict of interest. It turns out that it was all smoke and mirrors; it was a deceptive farce. The Prime Minister's order worsened the conflict of interest; it moved GLFC away from DFO to under Global Affairs, but the order also ensures that DFO continues to control the budget allocations earmarked for GLFC's invasive sea lamprey program.
DFO's years of denying the conflict of interest, and the Prime Minister's two and a half years of dithering and delaying a decision, were bad enough. Actions of the DFO and the Prime Minister jeopardized GLFC's fight against aquatic invasive species that threaten biodiversity, ecologies and economies on both sides of the Great Lakes. Actions of the DFO and the Prime Minister also strained and jeopardized what was once a stable partnership of the Canada-U.S. co-operation.
When the fisheries committee studied the matter, representatives of the U.S. side were very unhappy with the Canadian government. Now that details of the Prime Minister's order announced September 10 are coming to light, I understand that our American partners have even been pushed to a whole new level of frustration with Canada.
The September 10 announcement put the commission's essential work and the Canada-U.S. bilateral co-operation back on the rails, seemingly. However, details emerged recently that have again derailed the restoration, stability and co-operation, which is why two standing committees tabled reports in the House of Commons, one in 2023 and the other in 2024.
We as committee members saw the fire burning in the Great Lakes Fisheries Commission, and did our job by raising the alarm with the Government of Canada. Members of both committees came together and worked across partisan lines, because we saw that what was at stake in the fiasco is perpetuated by the Prime Minister. Conservation of the Great Lakes is at stake. Biodiversity is at stake. The Canada-U.S. relationship is at stake.
I would be remiss if I did not inform the House that the co-chair of the U.S. Great Lakes task force is none other than the United States Senator for Ohio J.D. Vance. Senator Vance is slated to be sworn in as the vice-president of the United States next month, on January 20, 2025.
The Prime Minister, the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans and the Minister of Foreign Affairs could have solved the problem years ago. They could have prevented yet another irritant in the Canada-U.S. relationship by simply living up to Canada's commitments in the 1954 convention on Great Lakes fisheries. Instead, the Prime Minister, the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans and the Minister of Foreign Affairs have chosen to ignore the problem, and now the Prime Minister has made it worse; he has kicked the hornet's nest in the backyard of the incoming vice-president of the United States.
The Prime Minister has failed the Great Lakes Fisheries Commission, failed our U.S. partners, failed conservation and failed biodiversity, and he has failed Canadians. Who is going to pay for the Prime Minister's failures? It is going to be the same people who have been forced to pay for every other failure he has inflicted on us: Canadians, who will once again pay the price for the failures of the Prime Minister.
I sincerely hope that my colleagues from the NDP are paying attention. One member from the NDP sat on the committee as we studied the issue, and I know that there are NDP caucus members who understand the Great Lakes Fisheries Commission issue. They support its being resolved, because they see what is at stake. However, we need our colleagues in the NDP to convince their leader to recognize the damage the Prime Minister is inflicting on Canadians every day. We need our colleagues in the NDP to persuade their leader to stop propping up the Prime Minister, who is hurting Canadians.
We have all heard statements made by the incoming U.S. president, and we all understand what is at stake. However, the Prime Minister insists on poking the Americans in the eye for no reason other than he is incompetent and holds onto his selfish ego, above the people who pay for his follies and failures: the people of Canada. We need to restore common sense to Canada's affairs, including foreign affairs, and the Liberal government has shown that it is not up to the job.
Therefore let us let Canadians finally toss the Prime Minister out on his ear by voting in a common-sense Conservative government that will live up to Canada's commitments in the convention on the Great Lakes fisheries.