So V ote

Context: House Hansard - 285 - Feb/26/24

Apr/30/24 10:11:48 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, first, I want to thank my colleague for the kind words and for his advocacy. It is an honour to present a petition on behalf of constituents of mine from Tofino, Ahousaht and Clayoquot Sound. They are citing concerns around migrating juvenile wild salmon stocks, which are under serious threats from pathogens, pollutants and sea lice originating from open-net cage farms. They cite that wild salmon support first nations' cultural traditions and complex ecosystems, including contributing to coastal forests, which produce the oxygen we breathe. They are calling on the federal government to remove open-net pen fish farms from B.C. waters by 2025, including with legislation aimed at immediately stopping the transfer of PRV-infected smolts into open-net pen fish farms and completing the transition of open-net pen fish farms to land-based closed containment by 2025. They are also calling for a transition plan that includes a conservation financing package that compensates first nations and businesses that would be impacted by the removal of open-net salmon farms in their territories, as well as the local businesses that would be impacted. Pacific salmon runs on British Columbia's coast are in a state of emergency. It is very important that the federal government listen to these petitioners.

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Context: House Hansard - 238 - Oct/24/23

Feb/26/24 2:55:16 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, for almost three years, the Liberals have let a ship-breaking company in Union Bay bend the rules, and it is putting locals at risk. A boat filled with asbestos is being broken apart in sensitive fish and shellfish habitats, which could cause irrevocable harm and cost 500 people their jobs. The B.C. government, local first nations and residents say that the Liberals are failing to protect Union Bay. When will the Liberals finally stop allowing this dangerous activity and further develop ship-breaking regulations to protect our local jobs and our environment?

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Context: House Hansard - 236 - Oct/20/23

Oct/24/23 10:20:23 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, it is an honour to table this petition on behalf of residents from Hornby Island, Denman Island and Deep Bay on Vancouver Island. The petitioners are calling on the government to postpone licensing further shellfish aquaculture facilities located near herring spawning and rearing habitat in Baynes Sound until a full ecosystem-based assessment is completed on the impacts of this industry's activities on the herring stock, and that they also establish a record of effectively managing their gear and equipment and pay for the cleanup of tonnes of plastic debris. Further, they ask for the development of a co-management plan for Baynes Sound and Lambert Channel with first nations; this should be area-based and ecosystem-based, recognizing the first nations' unceded traditional territories.

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Context: House Hansard - 215 - Jun/16/23

Oct/20/23 12:12:05 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, for two years, the Liberal government has let a ship-breaking company in Union Bay break rules in sensitive fish habitats. This could put this important ecosystem, and 50% of the B.C. shellfish industry, at risk, threatening up to 500 jobs and the local economy. Local first nations, governments and residents are asking the Liberals to stop extending the permit that allows Miller Freeman to sit above the high tide zone. Will the government stop allowing this dangerous activity and further develop ship-breaking regulations to protect coastal communities?

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Context: House Hansard - 184 - Apr/25/23

Jun/16/23 10:31:12 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, there is no debate that I do live in the most beautiful riding in the country. To my colleague, who is also from British Columbia, I say that there was a really important study done by the Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans, called “Sharing Risks and Benefits”, and it was by commercial fishers, to ensure that their needs are being met, because we have a broken commercial fishing industry in Canada. On the east coast, we have a local ownership model. On the west coast, we have a concentration of commercial interests. One of the top asks of commercial fishers in this study was to ensure that we know who owns the quota in our public fishery. Can my colleague assure that commercial fishers in Canada would know, through this legislation, who owns the quota, so we can better manage our fisheries and ensure that the concentration of wealth actually ends up in the hands of those fishing—

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Context: House Hansard - 178 - Apr/17/23

Apr/25/23 10:06:15 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, it is a privilege to table this petition on behalf of Denman Islanders from my riding. They are calling on the Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard to persevere in her restorative aims and use all tools in the sustainable fisheries framework to postpone licensing any further shellfish aquaculture facilities located in or near herring spawning and rearing habitat until an ecosystem-based assessment is completed, especially in Baynes Sound and Lambert Channel. They ask that the industry establish a record of effectively managing its own gear and equipment, pay for the cleanup costs of the tons of plastic debris it produces annually and develop, with first nations, a co-management plan for Baynes Sound and Lambert Channel.

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Context: House Hansard - 176 - Mar/30/23

Apr/17/23 7:36:47 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I am rising again in the House, as I have on multiple occasions, to warn the government of the risks posed by unregulated shipbreaking. This originates from a question in November 2022. On November 24, an oil spill was discovered on the shoreline of a shipbreaking facility that has been operating since 2020 in the community of Union Bay in my riding. This facility is operating despite legal challenges and warnings of environmental hazards from residents, local government and first nations. Now, a spill has happened, and the lack of federal regulations and guidelines to protect the ecosystem is glaring. The spill has led to serious concerns for Baynes Sound, which is home to over 50% of British Columbia's shellfish production and is critical to the local economy and many jobs. In addition, of course, there is the importance of the ecosystem. I have spoken in the House about the lack of federal regulation of shipbreaking, as I cited, and have called on the government to take action to prevent such an incident. I want to take members back to 2016, when I, Chief Councillor Recalma from the Qualicum Nation, our former MLA Scott Wilson, local shellfish owners and workers, tourism operators and locally elected officials had to go out on boats and take media to shine a light on the lack of response from government when it came to abandoned and derelict vessels. There were two boats that had been sitting there, and the previous Conservative government had promised for a decade to remove them. The boats were threatening jobs. They were the Silver King and the Laurier II, and it took all of our pressure to finally get the government to respond and remove those vessels. What we do not want is a repeat of a long delay. We do not want the Liberals to go the way of the Conservatives and delay in responding to really important issues at hand. Again, we applied pressure last time, and the government responded. We are hoping it will respond now, but we need to shift from a reactionary to a precautionary approach to prevent incidents like these. Instead of waiting for another spill, the government should urgently ratify the Hong Kong International Convention for the Safe and Environmentally Sound Recycling of Ships, adopt regulations comparable to the EU's ship recycling regulations and provide financial support to qualified shipbreaking facilities to help them meet new standards and regulations. We know the government is in a consultation phase with the provinces, but it needs to fast-track that. I want to highlight that the government's lack of response has really put the local economy and the environment at risk, but also right now we are learning that Transport Canada has no monitoring or enforcement of hazardous materials on board international vessels being shipped across Canada's border. There is only a voluntary certificate, which is done through Environment and Climate Change Canada, and it is effectively a self-reporting honour system. This is just unbelievable. There is the risk this puts on coastal communities, and it is also putting all the risk on provinces, first nations and indigenous communities and on local governments, which is totally irresponsible. We need to look at what the EU has done when it comes to shipbreaking and recycling, as well as at the Hong Kong act. I am really hopeful the government will take action and take a precautionary approach, and I am hoping today it is going to give us some sort of path to how it is going to remedy the situation before an environmental disaster takes place, even further to what is happening now.

616 words

Context: House Hansard - 157 - Feb/9/23

Mar/30/23 10:15:50 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, it is a huge honour and privilege to table this petition today on behalf of constituents of mine from Tofino and Clayoquot Sound. They cite that migrating juvenile wild salmon stocks are under serious threat from pathogens, pollutants and sea lice originating from open-net fish farms. Wild salmon supports first nations cultural traditions and complex ecosystems, including contributing to coastal forests, which produce the oxygen we breathe. In spite of the serious risk that domestic piscine orthoreovirus poses to the migrating juvenile wild salmon stocks, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans refuses to screen for domestic PRV and to stop the transfer of farmed fish that are known to be infected with PRV. Pacific salmon runs on the Pacific coast and in B.C. are in a state of emergency. The petitioners are calling on the government to immediately stop the transfer of PRV-infected smolts into open-net fish farms. They also ask that it complete the transition of open-pen fish farms to land-based closed containment by 2025 and follow through with the removal of its promise of open-net fish farms from B.C. waters by 2025.

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Context: House Hansard - 137 - Nov/29/22

Feb/9/23 3:53:44 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I appreciate my colleague and good friend from the fisheries committee. Does she agree that the use of the notwithstanding clause to suspend rights should not be taken lightly and should only be used in exceptional circumstances?

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Context: House Hansard - 99 - Sep/21/22

Nov/29/22 2:17:00 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, Doug Kimoto spent almost 60 years dedicated to commercial salmon trolling and his family's livelihood on the west coast of Vancouver Island. He was a tireless advocate for the salmon trolling industry and for salmon enhancement. In 1985, Doug's industry was sacrificed in Canada's Pacific Salmon Treaty with the United States, which resulted in a 50% cut in the Chinook catch for which the Government of Canada received $30 million in compensation. Doug Kimoto passed away last year, without receiving one cent of this compensation. He equated his treatment by the Canadian government in his fishing career with the way his own Japanese-Canadian family was treated in 1942. To this day, DFO has still not spent more than $10 million of the Pacific salmon treaty settlement, while Doug Kimoto lost half of his income from 2008 to 2019 as a result. Doug Kimoto was a proud Canadian who fought hard for the commercial salmon trolling industry and the compensation he and his fellow fishers were owed. Their treatment by the Canadian government has been a national disgrace. Doug is gone but not forgotten. His fight will not end until there is justice for the west coast commercial salmon fishers.

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All Topics

Sep/21/22 3:41:07 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, it is an honour to table e-petition 3965 signed by 707 signatories. They are petitioning the Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard, whom they cite aims to restore Pacific herring stocks to enable this keystone species to play its vital role in sustaining Pacific salmon populations and the marine ecosystem. The undersigned citizens call upon the minister to, first, postpone licensing any further shellfish aquaculture facilities located in or near herring spawning and rearing habitat in Baynes Sound and Lambert Channel until an ecosystem-based assessment is completed on the impacts of this industry's activities on the herring stock, and this industry establishes a record of effectively managing its gear and equipment and pays for the cleanup of the tons of plastic debris it produces annually. They also ask the minister to develop, with first nations, a co-management plan for Baynes Sound and Lambert Channel that is area-based and ecosystem-based, and respects and recognizes unceded traditional territories and this location's unique value as an ecologically and biologically significant area and important bird and biodiversity area with 21 salmon-bearing creeks and herring spawning and rearing grounds.

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May/31/22 12:14:14 a.m.
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Mr. Chair, other industries, such as forestry and agriculture, have also faced massive upheavals for the same reasons that fisheries are being forced to restructure, such as climate events and newly developed conservation policies, yet workers and owner-operators in these resource-adjacent industries have been heavily supported both federally and provincially with funding to withstand the transitions, retrain into other vocations and pay out to bridge to early retirement. Why are commercial fish harvesters being treated inequitably compared to workers in other impacted industries? There is a man in my riding, Leith Selvie, who is a commercial fisher in Parksville. He has not gotten any support since the government shut 60% of the fisheries on the north coast. Will the minister speak about bailing out these fishers and supporting them like other sectors?

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May/31/22 12:10:55 a.m.
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Mr. Chair, gathering facts is really important, and ensuring there is a public registry of who owns the quota is critical to being able to making decisions. Will the minister bring back limits on corporate and foreign ownership-backed Pacific fisheries? The limit was 12% from the 1960s up until the 1990s.

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May/31/22 12:10:33 a.m.
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Mr. Chair, in the confidence and supply agreement with the NDP, it was outlined that beneficial ownership would be a key priority. Will that apply to fisheries and oceans?

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May/31/22 12:10:09 a.m.
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Mr. Chair, I think it is clear in the report that they do not want any more transfers of foreign ownership and they want to know who the beneficial owners are. Does the minister agree that we should have limits on corporate foreign ownership of our fisheries?

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May/31/22 12:09:15 a.m.
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Mr. Chair, I mean all negotiations. In terms of corporate foreign ownership, I have been here a lot talking about sharing risks and benefits, and the report from FOPO, which we are still waiting for action from the government on. Does the minister believe that our harvesters and coastal communities should be the primary beneficiaries of Canadian fisheries?

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May/31/22 12:06:42 a.m.
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Mr. Chair, how long does the department intend to exclusively continue to use the fisheries to satisfy treaty rights? I have spoken to the minister repeatedly, asking her to ask the minister of CIRNAC to supply funds for reconciliation so that reconciliation does not fall on the backs of a small group of fishers and it is shared by all Canadians. Maybe she can speak to that. We have talked about it in relation to the west coast crab fishers. Maybe she can talk about whether she has had this conversation with the minister of CIRNAC.

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May/31/22 12:06:23 a.m.
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Mr. Chair, that is not a commitment. I am hoping the minister can commit to that. In terms of reconciliation, how long does the department intend to exclusively continue using the fishery to satisfy treaty rights?

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