Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. The way our reporting works, we don't necessarily have, or I don't have, the statistics on the number of victims. I can tell you right now that we have, specific to human trafficking, 27 active criminal investigations. Obviously, it continues to compile over the number of years, because with the complexity of human trafficking cases, it tends to take multiple years, so we don't have easily defined statistics.

Fisheries committee  In a circumstance like that, we would certainly work with the Coast Guard, but the Coast Guard would also be in the MSOCs—the marine security operations centres—and likely through the enforcement of their own mandate would be looking for the exact same type of activity. In fact, it likely would have been Coast Guard staff who taught us these types of lessons, but we would work together to identify and then share the information to ensure this is the appropriate enforcement action.

Fisheries committee  Thank you for the question. Thank you to the member. I'm not sure, but my colleague may have something to offer on the World Customs Organization. If anything, it would be my intent in my response to give you great confidence that we have a tremendous relationship with our international partners.

Fisheries committee  I would definitely defer to the police of jurisdiction on that. In a circumstance like that, in which there was a previous enforcement action, that would help inform our targeting rules so that we would try to ensure whether Queenie or whatever company—

Fisheries committee  I can't speak to where the product may have come from. However, there would certainly be an enhanced approach to any exports by a person who had been noted as previously contravening or subject to a previous enforcement action, so that would be an instance or a circumstance in which we would flag something that was destined for export and likely verify or examine the goods to ensure full compliance.

Fisheries committee  Specific to dark vessels and the mechanisms in place, I don't want to get into too much detail. I'm happy to expand a bit more after the committee or in camera. However, the marine security operation centres do also monitor vessel traffic and fishing traffic, and there are certain types of indicators that, when you are surveilling vessels, might be indicators of potential dark vessels that are being used as support vessels for potential transloading or cross-loading that would support and facilitate under-reporting of fishing.

Fisheries committee  In that circumstance, it would likely apply to the police of jurisdiction, whether it's the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary or the RCMP. Depending on the locale, there would likely be law enforcement to receive those tips. In addition, however, specific to the CBSA—again, this is several layers away from where the offence may be occurring—we also have our own tip line within our border operations centre, which allows us to be in a position to respond to any tips that might be specific to exports.

Fisheries committee  We have a variety. It turns out that we have a specific 1-888 number available online as well, where people can report these types of activities. Our interest lies not only in the export of specific products or shipments but also in the networks behind it. Where there is particularly networked or organized criminality behind it, that's very much where we focus, because attacking the networks or the crime behind the event is getting more to the root of the issue.

Fisheries committee  Mr. Chair, we would not turn a blind eye. This is the one certitude I would state, following that. However, I do not have a full list of all enforcement actions on suspected illegal exports of fish or seafood products. That is something we can certainly verify. The only instance I can recall is the example I provided to the other member of the committee, which occurred a number of years ago.

Fisheries committee  Thank you for the question. I'm very content with the system that we have. The national targeting centre serves as a central node for a lot of the departments and agencies that hold the legislation, and that gives a lot of our partners a direct line to the people who will coordinate and effect a target examination.

Fisheries committee  That is something we can look into. I do not know how many fisheries are specifically focused on elver eels. If there is only one source of legitimate harvesting of elver eels and that fishery is closed, then it would make sense that there may not be any exports specific to that item, to that commodity.

Fisheries committee  Unless my colleague has anything to add to that, we have a variety of different verification methods in place. I cannot speak from memory whether weighing the products is part of that. It's usually done by volume, size and an assessment of the shipment itself and the product. Specific to a million pounds of lobster destined for China, it's something I would have to return to the committee on to give you a fulsome answer and to ensure that I do not misreport should we not necessarily weigh.

Fisheries committee  Thank you for the question. The first and most important response is that I believe we do have the right tools and that we have some of the most well-trained officers of any nation. I have a great degree of faith in what they do and how they achieve it. In terms of the different gaps, there is a variety of different noted gaps if you study the seafood industry.

Fisheries committee  I would not be qualified to speak to all the different economic impacts, other than that it would have one as well as a much more severe impact on municipal and regional interests. All imports and exports have an effect on our economy. I wouldn't be able to stratify specifically the different types or aspects of the economy.

Fisheries committee  Illegal exports inherently have all sorts of impacts, such as the loss of revenue, the avoidance of revenue to the consolidated revenue fund for the Government of Canada and also local taxes or provincial taxes that may or may not have been paid. The same circumstance would exist with all trade fraud and trade-based money laundering.