Minister reintroduces new fisheries act legislation to replace bill that died

By Tina Comeau

SOU'WESTER

NovaNewsNow.com

A year after he first introduced it, federal Fisheries Minister Loyola Hearn has reintroduced a new fisheries act aimed at modernizing the existing 140-year-old act.

The last proposed legislation, Bill C-45, died on the order paper when Prime Minister Stephen Harper prorogued Parliament in September.

While much of the new proposed bill remains the same as its predecessor, the minister and his department have incorporated some of the input that was received following the introduction of Bill C-45 a year ago.

DFO calls the level of input it received “significant,” saying it came from fish harvesters, their associations, the fish processing sector, aquaculturists, Aboriginal groups, resource industry, environmental groups and others.

In keeping with the government's commitment to engage stakeholders, the bill has been amended to:

•affirm that the fisheries are a common property resource;

•require the minister to first take into account conservation in licensing and allocation decisions and then all other important considerations;

•remove the authority to allocate fish within a Fisheries Management Agreement; and,

•remove language that cast doubt over the issue of licence "transfers."

But NDP fisheries critic Peter Stoffer still isn’t impressed. He says the Conservative government has again missed the mark with the introduction of Bill C-32 and wants to see the government send the bill to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans, prior to second reading, for a re-working.

“The Conservatives have wasted an entire year on this new Fisheries Act,” says Stoffer. “If they had worked with stakeholders and the opposition as we requested last year, we could have had a new and improved Fisheries Act by now.”

The NDP feels the new bill still has far too many loopholes. It also has concerns with the 15-year allocation periods, changes in how licences are approved and fisheries management agreements that it claims may lead to the privatization of a public resource.

“We simply cannot support the legislation at this time with all of its shortcomings,” says Stoffer.

Hearn’s office says interested persons will still have further opportunity to discuss the legislation when it is sent to the Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans after second reading in the House of Commons.

The government says Bill C-32 aims to provide a more predictable, stable and transparent fisheries and fish habitat management system where fish harvesters, and others with an interest in the fisheries, can share in the management of this important public resource.

"It is simply not realistic to govern a $12-billion fishing industry any longer with laws that were drafted before British Columbia, Newfoundland and Labrador or the North were a part of Canada," says Minister Loyola Hearn. "In the 21st century it is not acceptable to have a system that allows politicians to determine who gets what fish without any type of public accountability."



QUICK GLANCE

One of the amendments that has been made to a new proposed fisheries act has been to remove language that had cast doubt over the issue of licence “transfers.” The Department of Fisheries and Oceans says confusion about this section in Bill C-45 warranted an amendment. Regulations under Bill C-32 will continue to authorize what is commonly referred to as a "request for transfer", i.e. the relinquishment of an existing licence and the issuance of a new licence to an eligible fish harvester.