Fisheries committee  Right.

Fisheries committee  Thank you. I can give you my personal definition of “consultation”—

Fisheries committee  I would concur entirely. Consultation is a lengthy discussion between at least two parties, with an opportunity to ask questions and to have questions answered. If you do not understand the answers or the implications of the answers, you work with each other, and at the end of the day, in our case, you walk away from a consultation understanding the implications of the amendments being proposed.

Fisheries committee  —it does not change the fact that substantive changes are being made to an absolutely critical fisheries protection bill that has implications across the country, has implications for all Canadians, has implications that are social, environmental, and commercial. For the Atlantic Salmon Federation, being the main representative of wild Atlantic salmon on the east coast of Canada, having two very short meetings with senior staff, without the opportunity for discussion and have questions answered, to my mind is not consultation, and that would be shared by all of the people I represent.

Fisheries committee  You mentioned the January 1 deadline.

Fisheries committee  What scares me is that we appear to have gone forward, and the time is fast disappearing. If anything, I'm here to the detriment of my health, not for the good of my health. You made a very good point. DFO has said to us that by the January 1 deadline, everything may not be ready to be rolled out by then but they're going to be ready.

Fisheries committee  I would say it's absolutely critical. I would hope this committee would have some influence in getting adequate time, an extension, so that real consultation can take place. I certainly wouldn't want to speak to the consultations that Mr. Sopuck alluded to. If that's taken place, that's great.

Fisheries committee  Possibly, yes. Possibly. You made a very good point, Mr. Sopuck, that I would like to expand upon. One example is that whether it's an aboriginal fish, recreational fish, or commercial fish, the quick response from most of us is, okay, we need to protect the fish that, as an example, Atlantic salmon eat, which are caplin, sand eels, and so on.

Fisheries committee  We do.

Fisheries committee  Assuming there was funding available, yes, perhaps, for habitat restoration projects; absolutely. Based on what we've seen in terms of the charges and then the moneys that have flown to the previous fund, we don't anticipate very much, but certainly if that was the scenario, yes.

Fisheries committee  I'd be happy to. I can be briefer and take further questions if need be. Just very quickly, the Atlantic Salmon Federation is truly a federation. We have provincial councils in Quebec and the four Atlantic provinces, under which there are 125 local river associations like the Hammond River Angling Association, the St.

Fisheries committee  DFO is a partner on the acid rain mitigation project that I spoke about on West River Sheet Harbour. In Labrador, we are working in partnership with DFO and a couple of first nations communities on trap-net fisheries, so we can hopefully work with them to move away from destructive gillnet fisheries that catch and kill every single thing that swims into their path, to trap-net fisheries that catch everything alive and you can release large spawners or non-target species.

Fisheries committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Good morning, everyone. It's nice to see you all again. I very much appreciate this opportunity to appear before you regarding Bill C-45 and the amendments, specifically clauses 173 to 178. I only wish that we would have had an opportunity for further consultation on all the amendments.

Fisheries committee  That's true. I want to be clear. The research we have, the information and advice we have, and our experience do not raise concerns. I'm not raising concerns today about halibut aquaculture or cod aquaculture. It's Atlantic salmon aquaculture. Again, the disease and sea lice are bad enough, but it's the escapes and the huge number of escapes.

Fisheries committee  The large salmon, salmon that spend more than two winters at sea--multi-sea winter salmon we call them--the large spawners go to Greenland. The grilse, the salmon that spend just one winter at sea, don't have enough time to get to Greenland and back. They go out to Labrador Sea off Newfoundland.