Fisheries committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair and members of the committee, for inviting my testimony today. My name is Sonia Strobel. I bring a few different perspectives to this study and to the impacts of foreign ownership and corporate concentration of fishing licences and quotas, and I'll try to focus my remarks in areas that haven't been covered by other witnesses already.

Fisheries committee  Again, this is what Ms. Burridge has been addressing as well. We have these rules in place. We have these mechanisms in place in our domestic processing system to trace seafood. There is such a diminished processing capacity in British Columbia for a variety of reasons and we need to protect and preserve what remains of that processing industry here to be able to keep that domestic supply and create those good jobs.

Fisheries committee  I think Ms. Burridge answers that quite well. It's such a good example that we have these mechanisms in place in Canada to trace seafood so that it can meet the more stringent demands of the EU market, so there's clearly a breakdown between what's being harvested and processed in Canada and what is reaching the end consumer.

Fisheries committee  I'll echo what Ms. Burridge just said. I think there's a lot of great work being done here, and I think there's an opportunity to support the people who are doing the hard work and really carrying the burden of that work for the industry. To recognize their work and to see government step into that role to support those who are working hard on innovating traceability in the industry would be really appreciated, as it benefits all harvesters and everyone in the industry.

Fisheries committee  I would say from my experience that the deterrents are definitely not strong enough. I've heard both from folks selling seafood and from conservation and protection officers that the deterrents are not strong enough. I've heard folks from both sides say that. We've had inspection officers from C and P come to our cold storage to inspect our seafood, who say things like what a relief it is to go through it and see pieces of fish with the skin attached so that it's easy for them to know what it is, and just how difficult it is for C and P officers to determine if what they're looking at is what it says it is on the label.

Fisheries committee  I think one of the most important benefits to harvesters is to know in advance of the season that you have pre-sold your catch. It takes out the uncertainty of where and what the best market will be for your catch. Without the Skipper Otto model, so much uncertainty falls to fishing families at the start of the season or in the middle of the season.

Fisheries committee  Can I add to that? Ms. Burridge and Mr. Lansbergen have pointed out that the problem isn't so much that we don't know this information about Canadian-processed seafood but that we're not demanding that the information come to the end consumer. Therefore, we are leaving it up to this market, in which a retailer might say that they can make a higher profit if they don't pass that information along.

Fisheries committee  Yes, I absolutely think so. I think the number given this morning, $94 million in lost tax revenue, was due to our not capturing that. It seems very clear to me that there's an easy way to be funding some of this.

Fisheries committee  I think it's a bit of both, isn't it? We have seen an enormous growth in demand for the product that we have. Skipper Otto grew 50% last year. It grew 100% the year before. The demand for this kind of product is very great, and it's growing. I think you're right that a certain percentage of the population has a lack of information—they don't know, or it isn't aligned with their values—and will always shop with their dollars first.

Fisheries committee  I think this is a wonderful idea. Absolutely we need to start with listening. I've spoken many times before, even here with the committee, about active listening and about starting by listening. There's so much innovation in Canada and so much creative thinking that when we put the task to people to innovate, people rise to that challenge.

Fisheries committee  I think that it's fairly well managed through bycatch quotas. When I referenced “rockfish”, that's one of the areas where we see that happening a lot. Some rockfish are abundant and very sustainable and some are not. In fact, some are endangered. The quotas attempt to manage that.

Fisheries committee  I'll briefly reinforce what Ms. Burridge said. From our perspective, what we see as the largest problem is imported seafood being incorrectly labelled in the marketplace, along with the difficulties for Canadian harvesters and Canadian small businesses to compete with that, and then the resulting blind eye that gets turned to that mislabelling and how that damages harvesters and consumers.

Fisheries committee  I don't have a lot of expertise in that area, so I'll keep it brief in the interests of time. I will just add that I think that enforcement is such a key piece of this. I know that there are things that are working well in the EU, but they only work well when they're enforced with something more than slap-on-the-wrist fines, because that's not a disincentive.

Fisheries committee  Good morning. Thank you for having me here to discuss this important topic of seafood traceability and labelling in Canada. My name is Sonia Strobel. I am the co-founder and CEO of Skipper Otto Community Supported Fishery, based here on Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Watuth land in Vancouver, B.C.

Fisheries committee  Thank you so much for having us.