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Background on the study

On 21 November 2007, the Senate of Canada authorized the Standing Senate Committee on Fisheries and Oceans (the committee) to examine and report on issues relating to the federal government’s current and evolving policy framework for managing Canada’s fisheries and oceans.  The Senate also passed a motion that allowed the papers and evidence gathered at hearings held during the previous session of Parliament to be referred to the committee.

Beginning on 6 December 2007, and in keeping with its order of reference, the committee held public hearings on the Arctic in Ottawa to better understand the issues at hand.  An interim report The Coast Guard in Canada’s Arctic, based on evidence gathered in Ottawa from 5 February 2008 to 15 May 2008, was tabled on 23 June 2008.  The northern perspective on issues still needed to be fully heard and considered, however.

During the first week of June 2008, the committee travelled to Nunavut where turbot and northern shrimp support commercial marine fisheries in Canada’s northern waters.  Public hearings were conducted in Iqaluit on 2 June, and in Pangnirtung on 5 June 2008.  Both these meetings concluded with an open-mike session to hear from members of the public.

Committee members were also briefed as part of fact-finding work by staff at the Canadian Coast Guard and Marine Communications and Traffic Services facility in Iqaluit.  In addition, they met with representatives of the communities of Resolute Bay, Arctic Bay, Pond Inlet and Qikiqtarjuaq, and visited the port facility at Nanisivik where construction of a new Canadian Forces naval docking and refuelling facility is to begin in 2010.

Through skilled interpreters, the committee was able to work in English, French, and Inuktitut throughout its stay in Nunavut.  Topics of particular interest to committee members were the role of the Canadian Coast Guard, the Nunavut marine commercial fisheries, sovereignty, and climate change.

The committee’s work was considerably delayed with the dissolution of the Thirty-Ninth Parliament in September 2008 and the federal election on 14 October, and with the prorogation of the first session of the Fortieth Parliament in December 2008.