Fisheries committee  I'll answer that by saying that if permits were, in fact, required and the law provided for them to be submitted to the CBSA, I suspect system enhancement on the CBSA side could help validate the presence of the permit in the system in order to expedite the validation process.

Fisheries committee  I can answer that. If regulations allowed us to enforce the act, that would help. If permits were required for either importing or exporting, that would help us combat the problem. Export permits aren't required at this point. That's something that would really help us.

Fisheries committee  Similarly, the regulations that we believe may come into force sometime in the future will certainly help the CBSA. In the meantime, we do have access to regulatory options of enforcement comprising fines under the Customs Act or criminal prosecution when the act is contravened, but we haven't come across that in recent times.

Fisheries committee  Thank you for the question. It's difficult to answer. I haven't read that statement by the deputy minister. I'm not sure whether, even if the fishery is closed, legally and illegally caught elvers won't get mixed. I think the problem remains. I'm not sure if I answered your question.

Fisheries committee  Thank you for your question. We do have the tools to trace elvers. We can use X-ray machines to scan boxes of lobsters or elvers to see if there are actually elvers inside. We have the equipment to do that. That said, we still have to deal with the issue of traceability, which is not our responsibility.

Fisheries committee  Maybe that question is better put to the Department of Fisheries and Oceans than to CBSA.

Fisheries committee  Mr. Chair, the traceability of elvers isn't the responsibility of the Canada Border Services Agency. The only tools I'm aware of were used by the CBSA to identify elvers in boxes of lobster or other boxes at the airport, so that cannot speak to traceability for elver in the industry.

Fisheries committee  Mr. Chair, if we find undeclared elvers, whether at the Halifax airport or the Toronto airport, we have the authority to seize them. If they are declared under the Export and Import Permits Act, all we can do is a referral, I guess, to CFIA to see what authorities they may have to seize those or otherwise.

Fisheries committee  Yes, I am fully aware.

Fisheries committee  The short answer to that, Mr. Chair, is no. The CBSA does not inspect 100% of lobster shipments going out, either at Halifax or at Toronto. Doing that would likely lead to significant complications in the entire lobster industry.

Fisheries committee  I could not give you a percentage, to be honest. We do random examinations, in fact.

Fisheries committee  I personally am not aware of that company, to be honest. I would question the quantities exported, but I can't do that at this time, so—

Fisheries committee  I could come back and give you a percentage, perhaps.

Fisheries committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. Good morning, everyone. Members of the committee, thank you for inviting me to appear before you. I first want to acknowledge that this meeting is taking place on the traditional, unceded territory of the Algonquin Anishinabe people. I would like to underscore that the illegal fishing of American eel elvers is of great concern to the CBSA, and I appreciate the opportunity to contribute to the committee's study on this topic.