Herb Dhaliwal

[Fisheries, September 18th, 2000]

Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. member for his question as it gives me the opportunity to update him and the House.

Since the Marshall decision last year a lot of progress has been made. I am happy to report to the House that we have 29 agreements with the first nations out of 34. Twenty-nine first nations have signed agreements. The government has made a major commitment with the $160 million initial investment to respond to Marshall.

I want to tell the hon. member and the House that conservation is a priority. We will ensure that we uphold the law, but we want to resolve these issues with dialogue and co-operation, not through confrontation.

[Fisheries And Oceans, June 15th, 2000]

Mr. Speaker, in any fishing plan, particularly in the shrimp managing plan for this year, conservation is our priority. I want to assure the hon. member of that.

Of course, we also respect the adjacency principle. That is why 70% of the harvesting will be done by the people of Newfoundland and Labrador. This is the same as in 1999.

The peoples who will be involved who were not involved before include the Innu nation of Labrador, who have been trying to get access to the resource for many years, the province of P.E.I., which has never had any access compared to others, as well as the Fogo Island co-op. That is reasonable.

[Fisheries, June 14th, 2000]

Mr. Speaker, the northern shrimp fishery has increased from 37,000 tonnes to 100,000 tonnes. The lion's share of that shrimp fishery goes to Newfoundland, recognizing the adjacency principle. Quebec and other provinces also have access to that.

I will take the representation from the hon. member as well as other members to make sure that we have a fair and reasonable allocation of that resource.

[Fisheries, June 14th, 2000]

Mr. Speaker, at this time I am looking at a multi-year plan on the northern shrimp. I have had representations from Quebec as well as from Atlantic provinces. I will be reviewing those representations.

I assure the hon. member that I will make a fair and reasonable decision in the northern shrimp plan so that we take into consideration the adjacency but also other factors in terms of historical links to ensure that we are fair and reasonable to all parties that are requesting access to it.

[Fisheries, June 12th, 2000]

Mr. Speaker, what is driving the agenda is, first of all, the court's ruling, whether it is the Sparrow decision or the Marshall decision.

The problem with that party is that when it does not like a decision, it wants to use the notwithstanding clause. We saw it under the Marshall decision when those members stood up. The only solution they had was to use the notwithstanding clause. We rejected that. We said that we would abide by the supreme court ruling and we will continue to do that.

[Fisheries, June 12th, 2000]

Mr. Speaker, clearly the Sparrow decision allowed a food fishery, and this is a food fishery both on the west coast and east coast. It is clear that under Sparrow, we were required to provide aboriginal people with access to a food fishery for food, social and ceremonial purposes, which is exactly what we are doing.

[Fisheries And Oceans, June 8th, 2000]

Mr. Speaker, I want to congratulate the member for Essex for the excellent work that she has done, along with the Ontario caucus.

The government recognizes the difficult problem that marina operators are having in Ontario. That is why the marine operators put their $15 million on the table. The federal government put its $15 million on the table.

We are waiting for the Government of Ontario to come forward and put its $15 million on the table so we can deal with this issue. I wrote to Minister Snobelen to respond urgently because this is a very important issue for the marine operators and for the Ontario economy.

[Boating Safety, May 19th, 2000]

Mr. Speaker, the hon. member is absolutely correct. There were 200 fatalities last year from boating accidents. We as a government are very much concerned. I was very happy to launch national safe boating week from May 20 to May 26. The theme this year is a campaign to get trained and to get an operator's card.

My department has a comprehensive advertising campaign to promote the new regulations. Over 1.2 million copies of the safe boating guide are being distributed.

This year we are targeting youth. If our youth take proper safety precautions we know they will also educate the adults. Youth play a very important role in ensuring that we start right at the beginning on taking appropriate safety precautions so we can prevent those fatalities.

[Fisheries And Oceans, May 16th, 2000]

Mr. Speaker, I am happy to report to the House that we have signed 17 agreements as of today and 4 more agreements in principle.

We said right from the beginning that the way to resolve this was through dialogue, co-operation and by making sure we negotiate and not litigate. That is exactly what we are doing. The voluntary licence buyback was something the committee recommended. The hon. member is a member of that committee. It is something that the fishing community recommended and that was exactly what we followed.

[Athabasca River, May 11th, 2000]

Mr. Speaker, the members have put an excellent case together. The low water levels in the Great Lakes are unprecedented.

The hon. member should know that there are $2 billion of economic development on the rivers and the Great Lakes. The recreational and sports fishery depends on the marinas. The marinas have come forward and said that this is something that we should do. We want to do it in conjunction with the provincial government and the marina association. This is welcome news for business people and for Ontario.