Questions and responses 41st Parliament, 2nd session October 16, 2013, to August 2, 2015

With regard to the Department of Fisheries and Oceans and the 2007 citations issued by the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization (NAFO) inspectors to vessels fishing in the NAFO Regulatory Area: (a) has the government been informed of any penalties or fines imposed by the vessels’ home countries; (b) has the government inquired about any penalties of fines imposed by vessels' home countries; and (c) were the fines or penalties paid by the vessels that were fined?

With regard to the Department of Fisheries and Oceans and Articles 39 and 40 of the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization (NAFO) Conservation and Enforcement Measures: what penalties, fines, and court actions have been imposed by the home countries of foreign trawlers that have been cited for illegal fishing in the NAFO regulatory zone off Canada's East Coast over the past ten years?

With regard to the Department of Fisheries and Oceans’ Deficit Reduction Action Plan Track 16: Reduction in Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization (NAFO) Monitoring, Control and Surveillance Activities: (a) what is the government’s objective with regard to this reduction; (b) how many employees have been eliminated to date due to this objective and what are their positions and locations; (c) how many employees will be eliminated in total and what are their positions and locations; (d) has the government done an analysis on what effects this reduction of NAFO air hours from 1000 to 600 and sea days from 785 to 600 may have on foreign overfishing off Canada’s coasts and, if so, what are the findings of any such analysis; (e) what are the internal tracking numbers for any documents or briefing materials on this Track provided to senior government officials at the level of Director General or above; (f) what is the total budget reduction of the Track in (i) 2014-2015, (ii) beyond; and (g) what methods used to monitor fishing activity on the high seas, including aerial surveillance, at-sea and port inspections, international observers, satellite (RADARSAT II) and vessel monitoring systems will be affected by this reduction and what are the details of how these methods will be affected?

With regard to the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, and more specifically all fish quota allocations in the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization (NAFO) fishing areas 2J3KL, 3MNO, 3PS, 3PN and 4R for the time period 2004-2014: (a) what quotas in each of these NAFO areas were assigned for harvesting by companies or businesses, including the company or business name and address, quota amount, species, applicable NAFO area, year and any specific conditions of license; and (b) of the quota allocations identified in (a), how many of the companies or businesses that were granted an initial quota were permitted to have another company or fisher harvest (sublease) the initially assigned quota, including the name and address of this assigned company or fisher, quota amount assigned, species, applicable NAFO area and any specific conditions attached to the permission granted?

With regard to the Department of Fisheries and Oceans and Articles 39 and 40 of the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization (NAFO) Conservation and Enforcement Measures: what have been the outcomes of citations issued in Canadian waters to foreign fishing vessels over the past five years?