Fisheries committee  Yes, there would have been instructions because you would have had to work with a habitat biologist and an officer to make sure that the contractors understood the instructions.

Fisheries committee  We watched the habitat offices go from 63 across the country to 16. I think about 1,900 positions in DFO were lost across the board—not just habitat. We no longer have a habitat branch. There's fisheries protection but there's no habitat branch anymore. I have friends who are scientists, who are habitat managers and work with local groups and with proponents to restore fish habitat.

Fisheries committee  That's a huge problem because we're not using the resources at hand. Volunteers put hours and weeks of their time into restoring streams. DFO is not there anymore. I think one of the unfortunate parts of that means we can't measure what we've lost, what we've gained, what we've offset.

Fisheries committee  One of the big losses was the lack of CEAA triggers. All of a sudden a whole bunch of projects didn't even have to go through habitat authorization. You're not going to measure those.

Fisheries committee  Aquaculture, for example. I think a lot of undertakings at the municipal level don't have to go through authorizations anymore, class authorizations. Nobody's tracking what happens. Nobody's training transportation workers when they're putting in culverts, so you have volunteers trying to look at whether or not the culvert is at the right height so water can go through it.

Fisheries committee  The agricultural activity regulations came into force a year ago this past August, as I understand it. There was an outcry at the time when they were being developed. I think 123 scientists from across Canada signed a letter to the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans. Our understanding of why the pesticides regulations were changed was that Environment and Climate Change Canada charged an Atlantic Canada company for illegally using pesticides.

Fisheries committee  As I said, my expertise is not in fresh water. I will say that one of the difficulties was the closing of some of the habitat offices and the reduction of resourcing. As you would know, we need scientists, enforcement officers, and compliance officers to actually track that information, so we don't know.

Fisheries committee  I do believe HADD should be reinstated. I think there's some work to be done under the regulations that can incentivize fish habitat conservation. One of the things I find remarkable is industries like farming and forestry have more restrictions on fish habitat than the fishing industry, which is interesting.

Fisheries committee  Thank you. My name is Susanna Fuller. I am the senior marine conservation coordinator at the Ecology Action Centre based in Halifax. Thank you for inviting me here again to speak to you on what I believe may be one of the most important endeavours you do together as parliamentarians and for Canadians.

Fisheries committee  Yes.

Fisheries committee  I'm not saying the whole act is perfect, and we don't have nearly as litigious a society, thankfully, in Canada, but there's some specific wording that I submitted on the consultations to the Fisheries Act pre-committee, and I can submit them again. Very simply, when a stock is overfished or in the critical zone, it requires a rebuilding plan within two years.

Fisheries committee  The Auditor General, yes, absolutely.

Fisheries committee  Yes, absolutely. It's very interesting that there are things in that report that we know have been happening, and it's very good to get them confirmed. DFO agrees with every recommendation, so I think it's quite important that DFO get the resources to act on fulfilling those recommendations.

Fisheries committee  Yes, and if you get a presentation by the environment commissioner to this committee on that report, it would be very valuable.

Fisheries committee  You know, we did not have a shrimp or crab fishery in Newfoundland before the cod collapsed. I think it would be interesting to look at what's going on in the NAFO area 3M where cod has recovered and there are no shrimp anymore. It's tricky, because the shellfish fisheries are worth a lot more than cod.