ENVI Committee Report

Liberal Party of Canada Dissenting Report

The Liberal Party of Canada submits a dissenting report to underscore concerns with the shortcomings of this study and the approach that has been taken by this Committee in general.

Committees have two missions. First, they are tasked with acquiring sufficient knowledge on a given subject to thoroughly vet government legislation for correctness, diligence and accuracy. Secondly, committees are expected to demonstrate leadership and vision by putting forward comprehensive and workable solutions to national challenges and real-world problems. It’s on this second mandate that this Committee has most recently failed.

The Committee has spent limited time in this session on substantive issues such as curbing climate change, creating a clean energy future, reviving the health of our oceans, defending endangered wildlife and habitat, ensuring safe and sufficient water supplies, and fostering sustainable communities. Despite this, the Conservative Members of the Committee—presumably on instructions from the Chief Government Whip—opted for a superficial study on licensed hunting and trapping in Canada.

To be clear, fishing, hunting and trapping are heritage activities that provided the foundations on which our nation was originally established. These activities remain deeply rooted in Canadian culture and identity, while also providing significant ecological, social, trade and economic benefits for Canadians. There is no denying this fact. Eight-million Canadians trap, hunt or fish—more than those who play golf and hockey combined. The sector contributes nearly $15-billion to the economy annually and, when undertaken and managed in a manner based on science and ethical conservation, provides thousands of sustainable jobs. There’s nothing wrong with the Committee exploring the long-term future of these activities, but there’s no point in nibbling at the edges of any subject matter, especially if it falls under limited federal jurisdiction. Unfortunately, that is precisely what this report does.

The Liberal Party of Canada supports the thirteen recommendations contained in this report. Broadly speaking, the recommendations are on the level of motherhood and apple pie. Unfortunately, many of the recommendations are superficial and of limited practical purpose when gauged against the significant challenges facing the sector. There are also concerns that the independence of the committee process has been used to justify government decisions that have already been taken or announced. In this context, the long-standing expectation that committees should demonstrate leadership and vision by putting forward comprehensive and workable solutions to national challenges has been entirely abdicated by the Conservatives on this Committee.

For example, the Committee has recommended that the government educate Canadians on Environment Canada programs that support hunting and trapping. This sounds reasonable, but Members of the Committee know the recommendation will be used to justify new spending on advertising. Government spending on advertising has reached near scandalous levels and new expenditures on advertising must be dissuaded. The Liberal Party would much rather see limited government resources invested in actual program delivery. To date, this Conservative government has spent $1-billion on ad-hoc partisan ads of little or no measurable public value. In contrast, Canada spends only a fraction of that total on items such as invasive species control, which would, if fully-funded, immeasurably assist Canadian anglers, hunters, furriers, and all those interested in the long-term, sustainable and ethical management of Canada’s natural resources and ecosystems. To put this into perspective, the Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters (OFAH) annually administers programming designed to slow the progress of invasive species; promote a scientific, legal, safe and well-managed hunt; and educate Canadians on the importance of conservation. The money that this Conservative government has already spent on “Economic Action Plan” advertising during their tenure represents more than 50 years of the total operational budget of the OFAH. If the government or the Conservative members on the Committee were genuinely serious about fostering and expanding an industry that contributes so much to Canada’s social, cultural, trade and economic structures, then this imbalance would have been addressed rather than made worse.

Furthermore, the report’s twelfth recommendation endorses holding a National Conference on Wildlife to help celebrate the 150th Anniversary of Canada. It is difficult to see how holding a one-day symposium does anything substantial for the long-term viability of the sectors. Worse yet, the government already made this promise public to the Hunting and Angling Advisory Panel (HAAP) on June 1st, 2015. Instead of a re-announcement of a decision already made, the industry would be better served with a recommendation to address the current trade challenges faced by the fur industry in places such as Russia or China, or with a recommendation responding to the negative toll caused by issues of recent political and economic instability. These facts again lead one to conclude that the independence of the committee process has been hijacked. Instead of finding new, innovative, and practical solutions to real problems affecting the industry and the environment, this report is merely a tool for justifying government decisions that have already been announced. The entire process of preparing this report has been shallow, artificial and without genuine value to the sector or to the environment on which sector participants rely.

If the government Members of the Committee were indeed serious about bolstering the future of the sector, protecting the environment, and punishing those who work to thwart legitimate and responsible anglers, hunters and trappers, they would have acted accordingly. Recommendations dealing with domestic and international invasive species control; leadership on reciprocity as it relates to the pan-Canadian punishment of convicted offenders; and the role of cervid farms in the spread of Chronic Wasting Disease would have been far more practical. These are each serious and long-standing issues that the Government of Canada has a direct role in addressing, yet has refused to act. In the case of Chronic Wasting Disease, governments are actually funding cervid farms, despite the fact they are known to perpetuate the spread of a disease that is a direct threat to wild animal populations of deer and elk. By ignoring these matters, this Committee has done a disservice to the environment and to anglers, hunters and trappers everywhere.

The Liberal Party of Canada will continue to strive for better results and it is hoped that all Committee Members are prepared to do likewise in future studies undertaken by the Standing Committee on the Environment and Sustainable Development. Those engaged in licensed hunting and trapping in Canada expect better and the Committee is capable of doing more that has become the norm over the course of this Session.