Fisheries committee  First, in terms of the financial arrangements for NAFO, those are very much consistent with the financing formulas with respect to other international fisheries organizations in the world. It's reflecting the standard practices. On NAFO, one needs to compare the existing 1978 convention and what it offers, where it offers parties the ability to object to a decision of NAFO, to set their own quota, and to fish their own quota for as long as they want, versus a new process that requires that there be an accountability, a transparency, a demonstration of cause and reasons for an objection, a process to try to bring a resolution to those objections, and ultimately a process to bring a closure to these types of situations.

Fisheries committee  A formula determines the funding of NAFO. I believe it's on the basis of three components. The first is that the coastal states, and as I had mentioned earlier there are four coastal states, pay the first 10%. Another 30% of the cost of NAFO is shared equally among all the members of the organization.

Fisheries committee  As I said, the vast majority of decisions that are taken by NAFO are taken on the basis of a consensus. There is truly an effort to come together in a cooperative spirit to secure the sustainable use and the conservation of the resources. The types of practices that occurred in the past, that you allude to in terms of the European Union and of others, of objecting and setting quotas and overfishing those quotas, is not currently the practice that we're seeing from these parties.

Fisheries committee  With respect to the decisions taken about TACs at NAFO, all the decisions that were taken were within the range of the scientific advice. You cited a few stocks that saw an increase. There were also stocks such as yellowtail flounder for which--despite the scientific advice, which suggested there would be permission for an increase in TAC--NAFO decided to decrease the TACs.

Fisheries committee  No, Mr. Chairman. I'll be making the presentation on behalf of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans. I'd like to thank you for the opportunity to be here this afternoon. We will indeed be diligent in trying to ensure that we respect the time requirement you've laid out.

Fisheries committee  I'm here this afternoon with Mr. Guy Beaupré, acting associate assistant deputy minister of fisheries policy renewal with the department. We welcome the opportunity to outline the amendments to the 1978 Convention on Future Multilateral Cooperation in the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries, also known as the NAFO Convention.

Foreign Affairs committee  First, I wasn't there with regard to negotiating the terms of the new convention. I'm not really in a position to speculate or comment on imputed motives. I have to say, however, that when I read the text of the convention, I see that it is very clear about confirming the rights of the coastal state and the sovereignty of the coastal state within its exclusive economic zone.

Foreign Affairs committee  Currently--and we are operating under the 1978 NAFO convention--the Faeroe Islands can object to the quota, and it is the case now that they are fishing a self-declared quota ten times what NAFO had assigned to them based on historic use of that resource, without the need for presentation of any explanation.

Foreign Affairs committee  Yes, absolutely.

Foreign Affairs committee  We have declined over the last four or five years from 14 to seven, to two or three, to zero last year. All parties are making an effort to see that their fleets comply with the conservation measures stipulated by NAFO. We also have an effective enforcement presence on the water.

Foreign Affairs committee  Very quickly, as I've said, we see operating by way of consensus, as we did, as I explained, around the arrangements about bycatch for the reopened 3M cod fishery. The two-thirds voting rule will likely come into play or be invoked possibly when it comes to a question of shares.

Foreign Affairs committee  This is a point that I may ask my foreign affairs colleagues to assist me on. Under the former convention, a party could simply object and establish a quota that they could either abide by or disregard. That was the situation, and it caused a number of conservation issues. With the new proposed convention, where a party wishes to object to, for example, a quota decision of NAFO, they now have to come forward and provide explanations for their objections.

Foreign Affairs committee  As I said earlier, I think the historical context was different. At the time this convention was enacted, many of the other modern management instruments did not exist. I don't believe there was the same appreciation or understanding of the implications of overfishing. That is now well known and understood by all.

Foreign Affairs committee  I believe the previous convention reflected the context of the times it was established in. That was a time pre the moratoria that we had established where we saw 10 stocks in NAFO closed for over 10 years. It's a time before our industry and the industries of other countries and their communities had to deal with the hardship and the cost of seeing their fisheries curtailed.

Foreign Affairs committee  At the recent NAFO meeting, all the decisions taken by the NAFO fisheries council were inside the scientific advice that was presented. For example, with respect to Greenland halibut, there was a great deal of uncertainty about the status of that stock, largely as a result of an inability for a scientific survey to be completed because of a breakdown of a vessel in 2008.