Fisheries committee  Sir, I was just going to add that I think the Canadian Border Services Agency would be an important federal government department that would be involved in this as well.

Fisheries committee  To keep it short, because I know we don't have too much time, yes, I think that could be an option to explore. I definitely think that having a specific committee or group of individuals, or a commissioner as you mentioned, will be important to move this forward and to make sure that it happens in a timely manner as well.

Fisheries committee  In many cases I think we do. Seafood is unique in that we have transshipments, so multiple products coming from different boats may get put on one boat for processing and then sent to another place. That's certainly a challenge the seafood industry faces, in particular in terms of maintaining that traceability once it gets to the port.

Fisheries committee  Unfortunately, we found that when left voluntarily up to industry, we don't see as many companies providing the information that we feel is important on a label. There may be some good actors providing some of this information, but the bad actors may just provide a generic common name, “salmon”, and we don't know where that salmon is coming from; or it could be a halibut that wasn't fished sustainably.

Fisheries committee  Just to clarify, are you talking about the greenwashing study that we conducted?

Fisheries committee  For sure. In that report we did in 2019, we intended to look across Canada, to cover all the major retailers and to see whether or not, as consumer demand increases for sustainable seafood, we could actually see companies providing this information about sustainability on their products, and to see whether or not that was verifiable.

Fisheries committee  Yes.

Fisheries committee  That report we haven't continued annually. The reports that we have done annually have been our DNA testing reports, which we conducted over 2017 and 2018. We've seen little improvement on that front, unfortunately.

Fisheries committee  I apologize. I didn't fully get the interpretation there.

Fisheries committee  If I'm getting your question correctly, of course, not labelling products—either because they are mislabelled or not truthful, or simply because they are from Quebec but maybe processed in China and end up being a product of China—is going to pose risks for the producers, who are trying to sell their catch either domestically or to other countries to gain recognition as a product of Canada.

Fisheries committee  Certainly we've looked to the European Union for many years in terms of their labelling standards. They provide the catch area on products. They provide the scientific name, and they also provide the gear type. Canada is, unfortunately, not keeping up with some of what we consider to be the best standards globally, and as I mentioned in my presentation, the U.S. is also taking steps to improve here.

Fisheries committee  In some circumstances, yes, harvesters who don't know where their product is going could end up with it being mislabelled down the supply chain as something else that could be sold for a cheaper price.

Fisheries committee  In terms of one big step right now, I would say making sure we are creating an interdepartmental task force with many stakeholders involved in the process will be the most important first step in getting this rolling. We have identified in previous FOPO meetings that there is a gap between what the CFIA is focused on in terms of health and safety and the data that DFO is collecting.

Fisheries committee  In terms of IUU fishing domestically, we of course don't see as much evidence of slave labour or human rights abuses in Canada's supply from domestically produced product. We do see instances of unreported catch or illegal catches in a different regard. For example, you see instances of high-grading.

Fisheries committee  SeaChoice has been working for many years on encouraging better seafood labelling regulations. Specifically, we would like to see the scientific name, an indication of whether the product is wild or farmed, the gear type used or harvest method and, of course, the true geographic origin, not just the “product of” declaration, that being the country of origin.