Fisheries and Oceans

This House of Commons Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans meeting continued its study on the attribution of redfish quotas and exploratory lobster fishing licences. Appearing as witnesses were Kelly Tremblay, a fisherwoman; Ghislain Collin, President of the Regroupement des pêcheurs pélagiques professionnels du sud de la Gaspésie; Alain d'Entremont, President of Scotia Harvest Inc.; Emmanuel Sandt-Duguay, a fisherman; Ian MacPherson, Executive Director of the Prince Edward Island Fishermen's Association; and O'neil Cloutier, Director of the Regroupement des pêcheurs professionnels du sud de la Gaspésie.

Kelly Tremblay testified that traditional snow crab licence holders on the Côte-Nord were excluded from the exploratory lobster fishing licence selection process based solely on their administrative status, despite having already lost a portion of their quota to new category B licences over 20 years ago. She argued this creates unfairness, as category B fishers can apply for exploratory permits while traditional fishers cannot, and she questioned why dockside weighing is not required for the exploratory lobster fishery to ensure scientific rigour. She recommended reducing the number of traps per fisher to allow more participants and identifying sub-areas to give more fishers a chance.

Ghislain Collin described his group's six-year struggle to be recognized as representative by DFO, stating they were excluded from the exploratory lobster lottery despite being a group in difficulty after the herring and mackerel moratorium. He said DFO repeatedly ignored their letters and requests for meetings, and that the adjacency criterion was applied in a way that divided the Gaspé Peninsula and disqualified his members, while other groups were consulted. He called for an investigation into what he described as a discriminatory and deeply flawed process.

Alain d'Entremont stated that redfish represents a major growth opportunity for his vertically integrated company, which has invested tens of millions of dollars in new processing facilities and vessels. He said the uncertainty and prolonged debate over allocation and access across multiple ministerial terms have delayed the fishery's development and risk constraining its market potential, and that this year's improved performance came after the department relaxed restrictive management measures. He noted that market constraints, not catch rates, are the main limiting factor for the total allowable catch.

Emmanuel Sandt-Duguay testified that the exploratory lobster licence allocation in the Lower St. Lawrence region was inconsistent and unfair, with most licences awarded to fishers from outside his community of Rimouski, some living over 400 kilometres away. He said local fishers like himself, who fish whelk and are negatively affected by the new lobster resource, were not consulted or invited to the draw, and that some licensed fishers caught up to 150,000 pounds of lobster worth over a million dollars. He recommended imposing catch limits or a quota system for new licences and favouring as many fishers as possible to share the resource collectively.

Ian MacPherson stated that the redfish allocation process lacked a comprehensive plan despite years of notice, and that the Prince Edward Island Fishermen's Association's joint bid with local first nations received no allocation. He emphasized the need for viable quota amounts for individual harvesters, proper planning and oversight for exploratory fisheries, and adherence to the principle of one licence in, one licence out. He also noted that market development was limited because quota was not assigned due to a high percentage of small fish, and that infrastructure investment requires regulatory certainty.

O'neil Cloutier testified that DFO increased fishing effort by 113% in area 19 through exploratory licences without objective scientific evidence to support it, potentially endangering the resource and current fishers. He said the adjacency principle was not applied consistently to all applicant groups, and that DFO did not assess the economic risks to existing lobster fishers from the new exploratory effort, which functioned like a commercial fishery. He noted that in 2025, thousands of lobsters caught under exploratory licences could not be processed and sold, wasting the resource.

The committee also debated and voted on several motions. An amendment to limit a proposed study on fishing safety to matters under federal jurisdiction was adopted, and the main motion was then adopted. A motion to study the salmon aquaculture transition in British Columbia was debated, with an amendment proposed to replace the study with a single meeting with the intergovernmental task force, but that amendment was defeated. The committee then agreed to schedule a meeting on derelict and abandoned vessels and to consider the draft report on that study in public on October 20.