Fisheries committee  Sure. I guess I have the privilege of being on advisory committees for other pieces of legislation, one being the Species at Risk Act, so I've found that there is an advisory committee through the implementation of that act, and it's been quite productive. I think there are oppor

Fisheries committee  Okay. I want to emphasize that, without having the regulations written out in detail, the enacting legislation proposed in this bill would expand provisions currently. It would go back to all fish and the HADD definition that was previously there, and then also to the concept o

Fisheries committee  Some of it, if it's done well. We would like to be part of an advisory capacity in developing those—

Fisheries committee  I think you're referring to riparian...?

Fisheries committee  In forestry operations, for all major operators in Canada, including eastern Canada—we've done some audits of Atlantic Canada—the width of the buffers that companies are leaving maintains stream temperature for fish and fish habitat. I can share that with you.

Fisheries committee  To address some of those concerns, I think equivalency agreements should be looked at, and not as an afterthought but a priority. I believe that provinces have strengthened their regulations in the interim and have been building them such that they could be deemed to be equivalen

Fisheries committee  I was not at FPAC at the time. I've heard that there was very limited consultation.

Fisheries committee  It's the same for us. As I mentioned before, our BMPs are essentially the same post-2012 as they were pre-2012. What was an adjustment for us was the decrease in DFO employees. It used to be that you would pick up the phone and call your local office to ask a question. Now you're

Fisheries committee  Yes, exactly.

Fisheries committee  I wouldn't say that.

Fisheries committee  I would say it's appropriate to have relations with local and regional DFO staff to set those appropriate buffer distances. Essentially, we have implemented what we call riparian area buffers adjacent to the watercourses, such that we don't want the temperature of the stream to

Fisheries committee  I would say it's less so, specific to the Fisheries Act, but very broadly in terms of our forest management plans. When we undertake creating a forest management plan, local communities, indigenous and non-indigenous, as well as local stakeholders are part of that process. It's

Fisheries committee  I would, yes, and in particular, I can speak to forestry, because we undergo a lengthy planning process for forest management plans. Often, these are 20-year plans that we put together, with multiple staff and multiple levels of government inputting into this in terms of expertis

Fisheries committee  I was working at FPAC and I was working for a forest company prior to the 2012 changes. Much of what I spoke about today, a lot of what we call our BMPs, our best management practices or standing operating procedures, were developed during a previous modernization process of the

Fisheries committee  Bonjour à tous. Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for the opportunity to provide our perspective as you conduct a study on the review of the federal Fisheries Act. I am here today representing the Forest Products Association of Canada, or FPAC, which is the voice of Canada's w