So V ote

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 - 176 - Mar/30/23

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 - 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 - 99 - Sep/21/22

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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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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Context: House Hansard - 185 - Apr/26/23

May/31/22 12:03:45 a.m.
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Mr. Chair, the installation of intensive subtidal geoduck aquaculture is proposed for the herring spawning grounds in Lambert Channel which, according to Department of Fisheries and Oceans records, are the source of 38% of all the herring spawn that has ever occurred on the B.C. coast and would support the whole Strait of Georgia marine ecosystem. Will the minister put the protection of the spawning habitat of this keystone species ahead of the installation of industrial aquaculture and save it from the inevitable cumulative damage that would follow?

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