Hon. Joyce Murray, P.C., M.P., Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard: Thank you for that question. My ministry and I prioritize willing buyer/willing seller as a mechanism for addressing the treaty rights that Indigenous communities have to fish, and we do that wherever it’s possible.

In the case of the elver fishery, we were not able to secure a quota for the Indigenous communities that was priced in a way that we deemed to be affordable and reasonable, so that’s why I went to the fish harvesters and their representatives directly and asked how they can help make sure that the right to fish of the Indigenous fishers can be satisfied. The proposal that was put in place was actually the one that came from the quota holders.

I appreciated that cooperation which provided an opportunity for the Indigenous fishers to have a share in that fishery, and from my perspective, that had multiple benefits.

Hon. Joyce Murray, P.C., M.P., Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard: We’ve been working very hard to create opportunities and working with the Indigenous communities to launch their own fisheries in lobster, crab and other species, and I’ve been very pleased at the evolution of these measures to respect treaty rights and the importance of having the opportunity to be part of the fishery on the part of the First Nations.

I’m going to continue to work towards that further allocation of opportunities for First Nations. Of course, conservation is very important, and that’s why we have compliance and enforcement doing their work. Non-Indigenous and Indigenous alike, we need fish harvesters to respect the rules so that we don’t overfish the stock and create problems down the road.

Hon. Jean-Guy Dagenais: Indigenous communities both in British Columbia and in the Maritimes enjoy Aboriginal fishing rights that have been upheld by the courts. Last year, your department took 14% of New Brunswick businesses’ baby eel and elver quotas and reallocated them to Indigenous peoples. The businesses didn’t receive any compensation, and the matter is still before the courts. I doubt your government would have acted with the same indecency and cut Indigenous people’s fishing quotas without at least negotiating and giving them compensation.

Could you explain your conduct towards these Maritime fishing companies? As a point of information, the 1,200 kilograms of elvers that you clawed back represent $6 million in revenue for the eight fishing companies. In your opinion, do those people not deserve to be considered?

[English]

Hon. Joyce Murray, P.C., M.P., Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard: Thanks for that question. Firstly, my approach included going to the Yukon and spending several days there visiting and listening to the committees of fish harvesters that include Indigenous harvesters that provide advice to my ministry.

I went to remote communities like Little Salmon Carmacks, where community members spoke with me about their grief at not being able to harvest any fish, not being able to conduct their fish camps, not being able to conduct their ceremonies that are so important to their communities and their teachings.

So I have a great deal of concern about the state of the salmon stocks in the Yukon of various species, and that’s why I took the opportunity to contact Dr. Spinrad, who is the U.S. Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere and current NOAA administrator, and expressed my concern about potential overfishing by U.S. fleets at the mouth of the Yukon River and expressed my desire to see the United States adopt a precautionary approach to their management of fisheries as we have done here in Canada. I hope to see benefits from that.

Many of the First Nations in the watershed in the Yukon have been funded to help with the data collection and science and are working very closely with my ministry officials and providing their advice as to what can be done to recover the salmon.