Fisheries committee  I don't think inland would contribute to the 10% targets, but we do link up the oceans protection with inland protection as well, particularly in the coastal zone. The Fisheries Act deals generally more with inland areas and the Oceans Act deals with oceans. We need to make sure

Fisheries committee  The answer is yes. If you're talking about the people responsible for inland protection in our department and the people responsible for oceans protection, they are part of the same sector. We do ensure that they work together. It continues to be a challenge to make sure that eve

Fisheries committee  I think it's our minister that would be able to designate the marine protected area. The authorities for the NRCan minister and the...I guess it's now the CIRNA minister, Crown-Indigenous—

Fisheries committee  That's correct.

Fisheries committee  I think it requires a regulatory process. The regulatory process requires that there be consultation and that there be a resource assessment, an assessment of the economic impact.

Fisheries committee  We have different tools. Right now there's no requirement for no-take. There's no requirement in the MPA. The minister spoke to establishing a panel to talk about standards. Some people have said they think there should be a standard with respect to oil and gas or with respect to

Fisheries committee  I think you could apply a suite of tools in that circumstance. As you know, we've already taken a number of measures when it comes to whales. Certainly this is one you could do. A big reason for wanting the interim protection is we now know from 20 years' experience that it ta

Fisheries committee  That's a really good question. We have many different tools for conservation. With respect to specific marine conservation areas, I'll just list a few of those tools. We're talking about the Oceans Act, which establishes marine protected areas. The purpose of that is to protect

Fisheries committee  I hear what you're saying, and we will endeavour to do so. We have had a very significant investment in science in the last two budgets. In the last, budget 2016, it was $40 million a year, which increased our science sector's budget by 22%. In terms of making sure that the info

Fisheries committee  The minister read the opening statement. We'll be happy to continue with questions.

Fisheries committee  I'll start, and Jeff, you may want to add. Section 2.1 of the Oceans Act says that “...nothing in this Act shall be construed so as to abrogate or derogate from any existing aboriginal or treaty rights...” I think this was one of the first examples of Canadian legislation to i

Fisheries committee  I'll start, and Jean may want to add. Jean said we are seeing some encouraging signs in mackerel, but we remain very concerned. It's at a low state. There is a commercial fishery, a recreational fishery, and a bait fishery. We've talked to the industry about needing to improve

Fisheries committee  I'll just add quickly to that. Concerning the focus on the big stocks, as the deputy said, that has been the case and, certainly, we need the integrated fisheries managements plans for those major stocks. But we also, as the deputy said, need to be paying attention to the others

Fisheries committee  We're always willing to work with groups. There are different views about hatcheries, about whether they create competing fish, competing in terms of predation, etc. As Jean said, we have partnerships with local groups up and down all of Atlantic Canada. We have a wild Atlantic s

Fisheries committee  It is always the department's objective to seek to do what we can to make sure.... The entire objective of what we're trying to do is not to have those stocks get into the critical zone.