Fisheries Committee on Dec. 7th, 2023

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Mel Arnold]

Thank you, Ms. Barron. Your time's up.

Now, we're back to Mr. Small, I believe, for five minutes.

[Clifford Small, Conservative, Coast of Bays—Central—Notre Dame, NL]

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I may be splitting these five minutes with Mr. Perkins if I'm in a good mood.

I'll go first to Mr. King. I have a headline here that reads, “Eel poachers forced Nova Scotia Power to shut down hydro dam”. That's pretty big stuff. It's a CBC news article that says, “Illegal fishing near dam created safety concerns”.

Do you know if the RCMP was called in to take care of that?

[Stanley King]

Yes, I do know that. This is one of our licensed rivers, and we have had the chance to talk to the people who run that particular power plant. They were told by the RCMP that they couldn't remove any of the unlicensed fishers and that they should put up a fence around the property.

I don't know why they couldn't get them removed from private property, but that's what they were told, and DFO enforcement would not remove them either.

They surrounded where the effluent comes out of the turbine, and if they had fallen in, they would have died. That's why they finally had to shut down the power plant, to make sure there were no incidents of death.

[Clifford Small, Conservative, Coast of Bays—Central—Notre Dame, NL]

There were no charges laid, though, and no law enforcement to take them away?

[Stanley King]

No. They were left unfettered for the whole season.

[Clifford Small, Conservative, Coast of Bays—Central—Notre Dame, NL]

Wow. With regard to Atlantic salmon, any time that poachers are encountered by C and P, their boats, their trailers, their big four-wheel drives—everything is taken. There are thousands of dollars in fines.

Why do you think there's a difference in enforcing the rules around Atlantic salmon and not around elvers?

[Stanley King]

There were at least 50 high-priced trucks in the parking lot of this particular hydro dam that was shut down, with only one entrance. If the RCMP or DFO had wanted to come and seize all those trucks, they could have just parked in front of it. They were sitting ducks.

Why didn't they? I believe it is because it's a political issue now, and they've been told to stand down, either by Ottawa or by their regional supervisors.

[Clifford Small, Conservative, Coast of Bays—Central—Notre Dame, NL]

Thank you, Mr. King.

How much time do I have left, Mr. Chair?

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Mel Arnold]

You have two minutes and 26 seconds.

[Clifford Small, Conservative, Coast of Bays—Central—Notre Dame, NL]

I'm going to benevolently turn my remaining time over to MP Perkins, Mr. Chair.

[Rick Perkins, Conservative, South Shore—St. Margarets, NS]

I guess he's in a good mood.

My question is for Dr. Suchan.

I heard earlier in the committee that you do the surveillance with all of your global technology in international waters. Is it in international waters around Canada, or is it in specific other parts of the world?

[Dr. Minda Suchan]

We support DFO in a variety of different places. For example, I mentioned the Philippines. We recently went out there to train some of the Filipino analysts on how to use DFO's dark vessel detection program. That is one area. We've also done that in Ecuador and a couple of other places globally. We do it, of course, here within Canadian waters as well.

[Rick Perkins, Conservative, South Shore—St. Margarets, NS]

Do you do it within Canadian waters or in the international waters just outside of Canada?

[Dr. Minda Suchan]

I would say both, from my understanding.

[Rick Perkins, Conservative, South Shore—St. Margarets, NS]

When you provide that information to DFO, do you have any idea what they do with it?

[Dr. Minda Suchan]

Certainly, as I mentioned, sometimes I hear back anecdotally about some of the successes they have achieved using our technology. That is really exciting for me and my team to hear, but we really are a technology company providing that data to DFO and reports to DFO. How they choose to utilize it in terms of the end response is within their parameters, not ours.

[Rick Perkins, Conservative, South Shore—St. Margarets, NS]

Would you be providing DFO with photographic evidence or other evidence of such areas as St. Marys Bay and southwestern and southern Nova Scotia, where lobster fishing is happening out of season?

[Dr. Minda Suchan]

We get asked to monitor certain areas very specifically, depending on DFO's needs. It's a back-and-forth conversation.

[Rick Perkins, Conservative, South Shore—St. Margarets, NS]

Have you been asked to monitor those areas?

[Dr. Minda Suchan]

Not that I am specifically aware of, but certainly I know that my team works very closely with them on a daily basis, so—

[Rick Perkins, Conservative, South Shore—St. Margarets, NS]

I'm sorry to be abrupt, but I don't have a lot of time.

Could you get back to the committee in writing on whether you are monitoring lobster fishing areas within Atlantic Canada and are turning that data over?

[Dr. Minda Suchan]

Certainly. I can do that.

[Rick Perkins, Conservative, South Shore—St. Margarets, NS]

Thank you.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Mel Arnold]

Thank you, Mr. Perkins.

I'm now turning it back over to Mr. Hanley for five minutes.

[Brendan Hanley, Liberal, Yukon, YT]

Thank you.

I'll pick up with Ms. Suchan and maybe go to Ms. Swartman too. They haven't had a chance to speak yet.

For either of you, I realize that you provide information to DFO and don't necessarily have that specific information to disclose, but you have been aware of illegal fishing actually being detected and documented through your systems. Would that be correct?