Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Mr. Chair and members of the committee, it's a pleasure to be here today to discuss the role and mandate of Fisheries and Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard and the contributions we make to northern economic development. My name is David Burden. I am the Associate Regional Dir

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Thank you for your question. I guess I should have prefaced my remarks by indicating that the Pacific region has responsibility for the chinook and the fisheries on the west coast at that end of the Bering Sea. From our regional perspective, there is not really much of a commerc

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Yes, thank you. I would say the same thing as my colleagues. We speak to each other before doing our work. It is not possible for any department to do its work in the north without cooperation. As the others said, the problem of contaminated sites is still a challenge for us, bu

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  That's a good question. Thank you. It's a question that has come up since the U.S. moratorium. The reality is that we don't at this time have any commercial fisheries in that part of the Beaufort, so it is not a pressing issue from a commercial perspective. That being said, I

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  There are some commercial fisheries in the western part of the Beaufort. I don't believe there are any in the part that we bought up against the American border, but I'm not an expert on that.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  The construction of the small craft harbour in Pangnirtung is going to play a significant role in the advancement of the emerging fisheries, which I indicated in my remarks is a huge economic driver in the eastern Arctic. It's also going to help with strengthening the local econo

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  The completion date would be 2012.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Pangnirtung is the first facility we have in the eastern Arctic. In the western Arctic we currently have three small craft harbours facilities.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  In my opening remarks I referenced the role of the co-management boards. A lot of our interactions with the communities are to ensure that we're working cooperatively and we're understanding their capabilities and abilities to prosecute the fishery. As you indicated, through som

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Our department is a partner in the process. Obviously, it's an INAC lead, and I know that officials from INAC have been here before the committee. From our perspective, things that touch the water and the use of the water are fundamental to the land claims participants. Obvious

Fisheries committee  Thank you for your question. A lot of the work we're doing currently is all about partnerships. There is a very good partnership between the state and federal levels across all the states, as well as here at home with the Province of Ontario. The study you're referring to by th

Fisheries committee  Back in 2003, some live carp were found in Lake Erie. That precipitated our study in 2005. Those carp that were found were actually brought in. When we did the genetics on them, it was proven that they were sterile, so they weren't breeding stock. That was the good news. It helpe

Fisheries committee  The Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement is up for renewal, as you may be aware. We've gone through the four plenary sessions. The two federal governments are in the final stages of reviewing the agreement. The drafts and the mandate we had in negotiating the agreement did, in fac

Fisheries committee  I was just going to add to what Michelle said. Clearly, as David said in his remarks, we're about 90% effective in our treatment for sea lamprey. As we see the resident fish populations grow, we're also seeing areas along the St. Marys River course, in some instances, where whe

Fisheries committee  On the first one, the binational risk assessment, I guess probably the safest answer for me to give on this is that when you have a bunch of scientists who have to come to some kind of consensus agreement, and these things are peer reviewed, it takes some time to finalize reports