Element of a New Fisheries Act - Discussion Document

Why Change?

Over the past several years, major public engagement processes relating to fisheries management have been held on both coasts: the Atlantic Fisheries Policy Review (AFPR); Aboriginal Fisheries Strategy (AFS) Review; and Pacific New Directions. Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) has also received significant input on the management of the Pacific salmon fisheries through the Pearse-McRae report on the future Pacific salmon fishery and the First Nations Panel on Post Treaty Issues. The outcome of these processes has been the development of a vision for Canada's fisheries and the identification of a suite of actions for modernizing fisheries management, the Fisheries Management Renewal (FMR) plan.

FMR comprises policy, program and legislative measures and has four objectives:

1. Establishing clear conservation frameworks;
2. Stabilizing access and allocation;
3. Encouraging shared stewardship of the fisheries resource; and
4. Creating a modernized fisheries compliance regime, including a provision for administrative sanctioning in the coastal fisheries.

The comparable initiative for modernizing fish habitat management is the Environmental Process Modernization Plan (EPMP), which seeks to increase both the effectiveness of habitat protection efforts and the efficiency of the program's delivery.

While the Fisheries Act provides remarkable flexibility to Ministers and to fisheries managers alike, updates were required to fully achieve the FMR vision and EPMP.

The current Fisheries Act remains a powerful regulatory statute but DFO is modernizing the Act to provide a more transparent, effective and accountable legal framework for the sustainable development of fisheries based on collaboration.

In general terms, the goal of this initiative is:

To provide a modern, transparent, effective and accountable legal framework for the sustainable development of fisheries and fish habitat, undertaken in co-operation with fishers, provinces, territories, Aboriginal groups and other Canadians.

DFO created a modern legal framework in which:

• Resource management principles are visibly and clearly set out;
• Harvest planning and program delivery responsibilities can be shared with the regulated sector, subject to common objectives and achievement of agreed outcomes where fishers wish to take a larger role in harvest management; and
• Retention of the privilege to fish is linked to compliance with the rules.