Standing Committee on Agriculture and Fisheries First Report of the Second Session, Sixty-fifth General Assembly Committee Activities

Transcription

1 December 7, 2016 Standing Committee on Agriculture and Fisheries First Report of the Second Session, Sixty-fifth General Assembly Committee Activities Mr. Speaker and Members of the Legislative Assembly; The Standing Committee on Agriculture and Fisheries is charged with matters concerning agriculture and fisheries. Committee Membership Permanent members of your committee are: Pat Murphy, Chair (District 26, Alberton Roseville) Peter Bevan-Baker (District 17, Kellys Cross Cumberland) Bush Dumville (District 15, West Royalty Springvale) Sonny Gallant (District 24, Evangeline Miscouche) (as of January 22, 2016) Colin LaVie (District 1, Souris Elmira) Hal Perry (District 27, Tignish Palmer Road) (as of January 22, 2016) Bradley G. Trivers (District 18, Rustico Emerald) (as of February 4, 2016) Former members of your committee include: Hon. Robert Henderson (District 25, O Leary Inverness) Hon. Tina Mundy (District 22, Summerside St. Eleanors) Hon. Jamie Fox (District 19, Borden Kinkora) Jordan Brown (District 13, Charlottetown Brighton) served as a substitute member at the March 18, 2016, meeting of your committee. Kathleen Casey (District 14, Charlottetown Lewis Point) served as a substitute member at the January 29, 2016, meeting of your committee. Prior to his appointment as a permanent member, Brad Trivers (District 18, Rustico Emerald) served as a substitute member at the January 29, 2016, meeting of your committee. Changes in Membership On January 22, 2016 Hal Perry (District 27, Tignish Palmer Road) and Sonny Gallant (District 24, Evangeline Miscouche) replaced Hon. Robert Henderson (District 25, O Leary Inverness) and Hon. Tina Mundy (District 22, Summerside St. Eleanors) as permanent members of the committee. On February 4, 2016 Brad Trivers (District 18, Rustico Emerald) replaced Hon. Jamie Fox (District 19, Borden Kinkora) as a permanent member of the committee. 1

2 Committee Activities At its January 29, 2016, meeting your committee elected Pat Murphy as its new Chair, following the departure of Hon. Robert Henderson. At this meeting Scott Ferris of Global Trade Services and Sebastian Manago of the Food Island Partnership provided a briefing on the PEI agriculture and fishery industries position in global markets. At this meeting the committee also approved requests to appear from the PEI Shellfish Association and Randy Pitre. The committee also agreed to invite John Jamieson, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries, to brief the committee on the Aquaculture Leasing Management Board. The committee agreed at this meeting to invite Atlantic Beef Products to meet with the committee; the committee later agreed to tour the Atlantic Beef Products facility instead. On February 10, 2016, your committee met with Bobby Jenkins and Ian MacPherson of the PEI Fishermen s Association, and Rinnie Bradley and Brian Morrison of the PEI Cattle Producers, for briefings on the PEI fishery and beef industries. On March 4, 2016, your committee met with Brenda Campbell and James Wagner of the PEI Shellfish Association to receive a briefing on the PEI shellfish industry; and with Randy Pitre to receive a briefing on off-road vehicles and farm fields. At this meeting the committee approved the request from Alexander Sandy MacKay to meet with the committee to discuss organic agriculture. On March 18, 2016, your committee met with Alexander Sandy MacKay to receive a briefing on organic agriculture; and with John Jamieson and Neil MacNair of the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries to receive a briefing on the PEI Aquaculture Leasing Management Board. On July 15, 2016, your committee agreed to several matters in response to a request from Colin LaVie that it examine a planned increase in minimum lobster carapace size and a reduction in the province s Atlantic halibut quota: That it would request a briefing document from Fisheries and Oceans Canada outlining background information on both issues and addressing the science that supports the decisions To seek a briefing on lobster carapace size from a government official who had recently made a presentation to Prince County fishermen on the issue To invite the Prince Edward Island Fishermen s Association; the Prince County Fishermen s Association; the PEI Seafood Processor s Association; the PEI Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries; and the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans Canada and officials from his department to meet with the committee to discuss these issues. On August 2, 2016, your committee met with Mark Arsenault, Sheldon Barlow, Edward Fitzgerald, Lee Knox and Mike Myers of the Prince County Fishermen s Association to hear the Association s views in regard to the planned increase in minimum lobster carapace size in Lobster Fishing Area (LFA) 25. The Prince Edward Island Fishermen s Association, represented by Craig Avery, Tony Carter, Ian MacPherson and Laura Ramsey, also presented their views on lobster carapace size and halibut quota. Finally, John Jamieson and Robert MacMillan of the 2

3 Department of Agriculture and Fisheries presented a resource overview of the PEI lobster fishery. On October 4, 2016, your committee toured the Atlantic Beef Products facility in Albany and met with management. On December 1, 2016, your committee met to discuss its report to the Legislative Assembly. Recommendations 1. Your committee encourages lobster fishers to come together for the purpose of live lobster storage projects and encourages Innovation PEI and the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries to assist in increasing capacity in this area. Live lobster storage facilities allow caught lobster to be held for a period of time and then sold into the live market when fishing seasons have ended. This helps fishers obtain a return for their catch when not actively fishing. It can also provide processors with a more consistent access to raw product, which should help smooth out labour needs. Reports to your committee indicate that existing storage capacity has been well used so far, and that storage technologies are evolving in terms of efficiency. Assistance for new storage projects is provided by Innovation PEI s Live Holding Program, and your committee encourages fishers to work together, perhaps on a co-operative basis, to put forward applications to the program and increase live lobster storage capacity. 2. Your committee urges municipal, provincial and federal governments to work with the PEI Shellfish Association to help address the economic and environmental challenges facing PEI s public wild shellfish industry. The PEI wild oyster industry has a 150-year history, and today s fishers still fish in the traditional manner, using dories and handheld tongs. Oyster fishers have worked hard to sustain and enhance this industry, and your committee wishes to see it continue. Recently Fisheries and Oceans Canada, acting on the recommendation of the PEI Aquaculture Leasing Management Board, reinstated the add a species policy, with modifications requiring identification of the location and amount of new species, such as oysters, to be added to leases for other shellfish species. The PEI Shellfish Association, as representative of wild oyster fishers on the Aquaculture Leasing Management Board, opposed this change but were in the minority. With this in mind, your committee calls on all involved in the shellfishery to proceed cautiously, as it does not wish to see an over-production of oysters that inhibits the viability of the wildharvested industry. At the same time, the market demand for oysters, whether farmed or wild, is growing and your committee hopes the wild public fishery will continue to benefit from that demand. Continued cooperation between all three levels of government and fishers is needed to address the challenges facing this traditional fishery, such as fishing ground closures due to water quality concerns caused by waste water or runoff, prevention of the spread of disease from imported spat, and other matters. 3. Your committee requests that Fisheries and Oceans Canada reconsider the planned increases in minimum lobster carapace size in Lobster Fishing Area (LFA) 25. 3

4 Fisheries and Oceans Canada has implemented a three year schedule of increases to minimum carapace size in LFA 25, moving up one millimeter to 73mm in 2016, then 75mm in 2017 and 77mm in Your committee has not received an indication why these increases are necessary on the basis of science, conservation or otherwise; indeed, the committee has not received a reply to any of the inquiries it directed to Fisheries and Oceans Canada. Demand for smaller canner lobsters is strong, in particular in European markets. The PEI lobster industry is working hard to capitalize on that demand, recognizing that we have a distinct product and that having smaller and larger lobsters for sale to consumers maintains diversity in the market. The former minimum carapace size of 72mm met the sustainability criteria of allowing 50% of female lobsters to mature enough to hatch at least one batch of eggs before they can be legally harvested. Lobster biomass in the Southern Gulf of St. Lawrence is increasing. No suitable rationale for this aggressive schedule of minimum carapace size increases has been provided to your committee or to the fishers and resource management personnel it heard from. Nor has it been explained why this increase must be undertaken in LFA 25 and not other Southern Gulf lobster fishing areas. Your committee is of the opinion that the decision should be reconsidered. If the increase must take place, your committee supports the position of the Prince County Fishermen s Association that an increase of 1mm per year over five years would be more prudent. 4. Your committee encourages Fisheries and Oceans Canada to comprehensively examine the Atlantic halibut fishery, weigh input from all eight fishing regions involved in it, and develop a new means of allocating quota that is based on sustainability of the resource; fair access for all eight regions; the present level of economic dependence each region places on this fishery; and the potential economic benefit for each region in the event that its quota were to increase. PEI halibut fishers are aggrieved at the recent decision to return to allocating Atlantic halibut quota purely on the basis of past landings from a certain historical period. During the historical period in question PEI was under a groundfish moratorium, and thus to use that past period as a determinant for current allocation immediately puts Island fishers at a disadvantage. PEI has over 800 Atlantic halibut licenses, which represents 22% of halibut license distribution, yet only 1.46% of the quota. PEI fishers are not alone in objecting to the current allocation of Atlantic halibut quota; fishers from New Brunswick and Nova Scotia also wish it to be more fairly distributed. It seems that the means of allocating quota in this fishery is too dependent on the will of the federal Fisheries minister and pressure from fisheries organizations of the eight regions involved. Indeed, the allocation method has shifted from historical landings only, to historical landings plus excess divided equally among the regions, and back to historical landings only. Each change seems to favour some fisheries and disadvantage others. Therefore your committee suggests that Fisheries and Oceans Canada work with representatives of the halibut fishing regions to develop a new means of allocation that incorporates sustainability, fair access, and economic considerations for the regions involved. A fair allocation method would use environmental, demographic and economic data to measure these considerations, and could be based on a formula that is subject to periodic review. This would make the decision less subject to political considerations and lobby efforts. Once a fair allocation method is arrived at, participation in the fishery should be examined and, if necessary, rationalization of licenses should be considered. 4

5 5. Your committee calls on all off-road vehicle users to show more respect for farmers and other landowners who do not wish their land to be trespassed upon; in the absence of such respect, greater restrictions on the use of off-road vehicles may be necessary. Farmers put time, effort and money into the development of the fields they rely on for their livelihood. In some cases, such as blueberries, plants require years of nurturing and protection before they produce a viable crop. That investment is quickly wasted when a snowmobile or ATV drives over and damages the plants. Even when plant damage does not occur, off-road vehicles driving on farm fields can cause soil damage, unwanted noise, liability issues, and, at the very least, constitute trespassing. Farm fields are not meant to be corridors to access the Confederation Trail, but in some cases are being used as such. Many off-road vehicle users are responsible and respectful of private property. Some, however, pay no heed to no trespassing signs and disregard the efforts of law enforcement to deter this activity. Your committee calls for greater respect for private property and for Island farmers who grow our food. The recent publication of the guidebook on off-highway vehicle operation is a good first step. However, if off-road vehicle trespass continues to be a problem it may be necessary to legislate changes to their permitted use on PEI. This could include restricting their use to the private property of the owner and designated areas such as the Confederation Trail (in the case of snowmobiles), while also requiring the owner to present proof of a means of transporting them between the two, such as a trailer, when applying for a permit. 6. Your committee encourages Government to consider programs, incentives or other means of encouraging and assisting new entrants to the beef industry. Your committee found the tour of Atlantic Beef Products highly informative, and commends ABP for the success it is achieving through plant efficiencies, reaching niche markets, and product branding. ABP competes against much bigger operations in the North American beef market and management has been very astute in identifying opportunities and servicing the Atlantic cattle industry. After some very difficult years, the beef industry has rebounded; unfortunately those difficult years caused the exit of many farmers from the industry. With the industry and the local beef processor now enjoying more success, it would be beneficial for new farmers to enter this industry, focusing on niche markets, quality standards, and humane production. Your committee suggests that government, in partnership with Atlantic Beef Products and the PEI Cattle Producers, should examine ways to provide greater encouragement for new farmers to enter the beef industry. 7. Your committee encourages Government to continue supporting diversification in agriculture, including organic farming and other practices that promote soil health and longterm sustainability for the industry. 5

6 Conclusion Your committee thanks the individuals and groups that shared their views on agriculture and fisheries with the committee. Respectfully submitted, Pat Murphy, MLA Chair Standing Committee on Agriculture and Fisheries 6