Sorting through the Fisheries Act amendments
Organizations and industry are continuing to sort through amendments that have been made to the Fisheries Act.
The federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans says the proposed changes to the act are aimed at:
• restoring lost protections and incorporate modern safeguards
• providing better certainty for industry
• ensuring the long-term sustainability of marine resources
• making sure that the Fisheries Act provides strong and meaningful protection for our fish and waters
The Government of Canada says the proposed amendments would restore the protections to all fish and fish habitats that were lost with changes that were made in 2012. Proposed changes would also put in place new modern safeguards to help communities by better managing projects, enhancing marine protection and allow the sustainable use of our resources while protecting them for our future.
The government has said it will invest up to $284.2 million to support restoring lost protections to fish and incorporating modern safeguards.
“To preserve, protect and help restore our environment we need a Fisheries Act that Canadians can trust,” said federal Fisheries Minister Dominic LeBlanc.
The proposed changes extend habitat protection to aquatic species that are not part of commercial or recreational fisheries.
The broad-ranging changes come after a year of public consultation and reverse amendments made by the former federal Conservatives that reduced habitat protection to only species of commercial or recreational interest.
“It is a big step that the new act includes that the minister must take into account whether or not rebuilding measures are in place for depleted species, however, details on rebuilding will be in regulations,” said Susanna Fuller, senior marine co-ordinator for the Ecology Action Centre.
“We will continue to advocate that the regulations require timelines and targets as well as an ecosystem approach to rebuilding, taking into account impacts of climate change and species interactions.”
Other amendments to the act also bolster the minister’s authority to enforce the owner/operator and fleet separation policies in Atlantic Canada.
Federal Fisheries Department policies require inshore fishing licences be owned by those who fish them. The policy differentiates between the inshore and offshore fisheries — allowing processing companies access to licences fished by larger vessels.
“There’s nothing in (the proposed amendments) that says they have to have a fleet separation or owner operator policy, it just makes it very clear that the minister is allowed to do that,” said Phillip Saunders, a professor at Dalhousie University’s Schulich School of Law who has expertise in fisheries law.
The Fisheries Department has begun aggressively enforcing the policy over recent years, demanding fishermen get out of any deals with processors that allow the latter control over their licenses in exchange for financing or have those licenses revoked.
Saunders said the change to the act’s wording strengthens the minister’s hand in relation to legal challenges against the policies.
The Fisheries Council of Canada (FCC) says it is cautious, but hopeful, the proposed legislative frame- work will facilitate and enable the fisheries sector to be prosperous long into the future.
“The Minister has taken a strategic approach to restoring and introducing new protections in the Act. The sustainability of our fish resources is vital to our future,” said FCC president Paul Lansbergen in a media release. “We look forward to working with the government and Parliamentarians on the details of the Bill and subsequent regulations.”
The amendments are seventy-six pages in length.
“The Fisheries Act is our bible, governing all aspects of the fisheries sector. The amendments are far-reaching and some implications may not appear for years to come,” Lansbergen said. “It is critical that we have an open and honest discussion to make sure we get it right.”
The Canadian seafood industry creates 80,000 direct jobs, mainly If passed into law, the government says the proposed amendments would:
• help ensure that the economic benefits of fishing remain with the licence holders and their community by providing clear ability to enshrine current inshore fisheries policies into regulations
• restore lost protections by returning to comprehensive protection against harming all fish and fish habitat
• strengthen the role of Indigenous peoples in project reviews, monitoring and policy development
• recognize that decisions can be guided by principles of sustainability, precaution and ecosystem management
• promote restoration of degraded habitat and rebuilding of depleted fish stocks
• allow for the better management of large and small projects impacting fish and fish habitat through a new permitting framework and codes of practice
• create full transparency for projects with a public registry
• create new fisheries management tools to enhance the protection of fish and ecosystems
• strengthen the long-term protection of marine refuges for biodiversity
• clarify and modernize enforcement powers to address emerging fisheries issues and to align with current provisions in other legislation in coastal and rural communities, and accounts for $6.6 billion in exports. Eighty per cent of Canadian wild seafood production by value is certified by the Marine Stewardship Council, the international gold standard for measuring fishery sustainability.
One of the things not addressed in the amended act is creating a ‘moderate livelihood’ fishery for First Nations members in accordance with the Supreme Court of Canada’s 1999 Marshall decision.