1) Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard Dominic LeBlanc Makes an Announcement on How the Government of Canada Will Help Strengthen the Coast Guard’s On-the-Scene Capacity During Marine Pollution Incidents.
DFO News Conference, February 15, 2017
Roger Girouard: My name is Roger Girouard, and I’m the Assistant Commissioner for the Canadian Coast Guard Western Region, our headquarters based in Victoria. The Coast Guard works every day to ensure the most effective on-water capability in this region, so it gives me great pleasure to receive you here to this venue, Canadian Coast Guard Base Sea Island, the backbone of our capabilities in the Greater Vancouver Area.
I’m delighted to receive our Minister here today along with my boss Commissioner Jody Thomas. And I want to extend a special thanks to the Minister for coming to cast his eye on the Vancouver area and participate in this important announcement. So without further ado, let me introduce the Honourable Dominic LeBlanc, Minister of Fisheries and Oceans and of the Canadian Coast Guard. Minister. (Applause.)
Hon. Dominic LeBlanc: Merci beaucoup. So thank you. Thank you very much, Roger, and colleagues. Guys, this is – it’s not like church; you can come forward here, okay? Like you want me to speak in an empty hangar. Come forward here a bit. I get it at mass on Sunday everyone wants to sit at the back, but.
So Roger, thank you. It’s always a pleasure to be at a facility as important to our country and to the Canadian Coast Guard obviously as Sea Island. I had a chance to come here with the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, and some of you were here then. This really is a remarkable part of the Government of Canada infrastructure and just the sounds and the sights that you see and hear remind us of the important work that the men and women of the Coast Guard do from this facility here at Sea Island.
Roger said he’s always happy when I can come to British Columbia. If you saw the snowstorm that hit Moncton on Monday, Roger, it’s pretty nice to be here in the rain in B.C.
So first of all, thank you for welcoming me. It’s – as I said, it really is a pleasure to have a chance to meet so many of you, but also to learn about the remarkable work you do. I’m lucky in Ottawa we have people like Mario Pelletier who’s here and our Commissioner Jody Thomas who is joining me here today, Kevin Stringer who’s our Associate Deputy Minister is also here as well as people from my office.
Every week in Ottawa and when I’m not in Ottawa, I get a chance to hear about and learn about the work that the Coast Guard does literally in almost every corner of the country. And if you think about the vastness of our coastlines, no Canadian is unimpressed by the work you do and by your dedication and your courage. And I thought it was a chance for me to say to all of you on behalf of the Government of Canada, but probably on behalf of millions of people who have watched and admired your work how much we appreciate everything you do.
So I’m going to make a few – a few remarks about our Ocean Protection Plan. As many of you know, the Prime Minister was in British Columbia in November. I was on the other coast, four and a half time zones away. We missed the evening newscast for the announcement in St. John’s, Newfoundland because he was a bit delayed here, and it’s bad to scoop your boss when you talk about something like that, so we waited in St. John’s, and my colleague Catherine McKenna and Scott Brison were in Halifax talking about something that our government feels very, very strongly about. It’s what can we do working with people in the Canadian Coast Guard obviously as one of the primary agencies responsible for protecting Canada’s oceans, but what can we do really to tell Canadians that we have a plan and we have a story about greater and better protection and response times that are so important to Canadians.
So as all of you know, Canada is blessed with the longest coastline in the world. Tens of thousands of kilometres, literally, of beaches, of shores, cliffs and forests, glaciers and grassland. Much like Atlantic Canada where I come from, the people of British Columbia and of the Pacific coast have relied on the ocean and the oceans for clean water, for food, for trade and also for recreation. Our coastlines are a fundamental part of the Canadian experience. But today, the demands on our oceans and marine resources are higher than they’ve ever been before.
In British Columbia, ports like Vancouver and Prince Rupert have grown rapidly in the past decade and are now a critical part of our global trading pattern. So if Canadians want governments to be concerned about growing the economy, about looking towards new and emerging markets, we just have to think about the infrastructure and the importance of ports like Vancouver and Prince Rupert and many other smaller ones as well in terms of ensuring that the Canadian economy continues to grow and prosper.
The Salish seas have always been an important route for the movement of people, and B.C. Ferries today literally helps move thousands of people a day around the south coast of this great province. In the Lower Mainland of British Columbia—all of you know this better than I do—paddlers, kayakers and sailboats are not uncommon sights in Howe Sound and False Creek. And earlier we were talking about some of the challenges that many of these recreational boaters present with an increased global shipping traffic, including the presence of tankers, and what that can represent for the safety of the people using the water, but also in terms of the safety of the environment.
That’s why your government, that’s why we believe strongly, and I think that’s a view shared by all Canadians that it’s crucial to have adequate resources available to ensure that the British Columbia coastline remains safe, clean and accessible for generations to come. Our government is making significant investments in the Coast Guard.
Last summer, I had the privilege of reopening the Kitsilano Coast Guard Station, which is now fully operational, as all of you know, and supports both search and rescue operations and training and particularly training in terms of environmental response. We’re in the midst of renewing the Coast Guard fleet of ships. Tomorrow, the Commissioner and I and Mario and Roger will be visiting the Vancouver shipyards to see the progress that’s being made. We understand the impatience that the women and men of the Coast Guard feel in terms of advancing this major procurement project. We recognize that this represents billions of dollars invested in trying to give all of you the proper instruments you have to do the jobs that Canadians expect of you. So I’ll be doing everything I can along with your colleagues to make sure that we get the best ships possible for the women and men of the Coast Guard and we get them as quickly as we can reasonably get them and that they’ll meet your needs and the needs that Canadians expect the Coast Guard to meet.
Comme j’ai dit, le Premier ministre a annoncé en novembre dernier un investissement sans précédent de 1,5 milliards de dollars dans le cadre de notre Plan pour la protection des océans.
So under the Ocean Protection Plan, we will be working with the Department of the Environment and Climate Change and the Department of Transport. My colleagues Marc Garneau and Catherine McKenna, we will be working with all of you to safeguard our oceans and continue to sustain the ecosystems and the marine life that have been sources of wonder and beauty, but also of economic opportunity for generations past and we believe for generations to come.
The idea of the Ocean Protections Plan is to create a world-leading marine safety system, including new preventative and response measures that will better protect our waters and our coasts. Investments that we’re making in the $1.5 billion initiative will lead to better responses when marine incidents occur on all of Canada’s coasts.
So I’ll conclude by highlighting one opportunity of how the Ocean Protections Plan will improve the authority and the capacity of the Canadian Coast Guard to protect our waterways.
Firstly, we’ll be investing in increasing the search and rescue capabilities in British Columbia through new rescue stations, better communications gear, and more towing capacity. We’re purchasing and installing emergency tow kits on 25 of the Coast Guard’s largest vessels across the country. And we’re also leasing two new vessels here on the west coast with the capacity to tow and secure large commercial ships.
Next, we’re enhancing the Coast Guard’s ability to respond to environmental incidents near or on the water. In the Vancouver area, we heard about this – I heard about this from a provincial MLA at an event earlier this morning, the Coast Guard works closely and very effectively with the Western Canada Marine Response Corporation to strengthen our response to environmental incidents.
More importantly—and this is the significant piece of what I wanted to announce today—we are creating four Primary Environmental Response Teams, or PERTS. Now those of you who’ve been around the federal bureaucracy, now you can see the joke coming. Primary Emergency Response Teams, PERTs. All of you know that’s also a shampoo, but in this case it’s an innovative and we think comprehensive plan to have teams that are dedicated and specially trained who will work together to strengthen the Coast Guard’s on-scene capacity during marine pollution incidents.
These new teams of environmental response officers will be on duty 24 hours a day, seven days a week and on standby to, for example, prepare and set up an incident command post, conduct on-water operations to monitor a polluter’s response, or conduct—and this is critical—conduct initial containment and cleanup activities the very moment an incident happens.
These PERT officers will also be responsible for supporting other preparedness activities within the Coast Guard’s environmental response program, including training, planning and working with other stakeholders and other orders of government. So if we’re going to be effective at this, we have to work with provincial authorities, we have to work with indigenous communities, and these new Primary Environmental Response Teams will have as a focus the ongoing building of relationships which make all of our work much more effective.
All of you know a million times better than I do that we are called upon to work in some of the most risky and complicated and often life-threatening circumstances. British Columbia has one of the most rugged and extensive coastlines in the world. In order to help you do the work that Canadians know you can and do do, we’re also partnering, for example, with the Coast Guard Auxiliary to expand the network of over 400 search and rescue volunteers who will also be able to engage in environmental response. We’ll be partnering, as I said, with indigenous communities, who in many cases are the first responders, depending where an incident happens along the coastline. We’ll be working with them to ensure that they have the training, the skills and the equipment to be the best first responders that they can be and want to be, often while the Canadian Coast Guard is mobilizing to arrive at a particular circumstance.
So to improve the response time—and this is something that we’ve heard across the country and certainly in your province—to improve the response time, a new Coast Guard Environmental Response and Logistics Depot with a dedicated Primary Environmental Response Team will be located in Port Hardy, British Columbia. This is one of the busiest and most important waterways in the country. To have this facility and these people in Port Hardy we’re convinced will show Canadians that the government is absolutely serious about improving marine safety and ocean protection, and it’ll be part of giving all of you who work in the Canadian Coast Guard the facilities, the resources and the circumstances that you can do the work that Canadians know you can do so well.
So in closing, vous me permettrez de vous dire merci, pour vous remercier vous, les employés de la Garde côtière. This particular base here, this particular base is one of the most important and busiest points for the Canadian Coast Guard. We had a chance informally when we walked around to talk about the 24/7 personnel that work here. You don’t have to imagine very much, hearing the sound of the constant departure and arrival of airplanes, to understand the strategic importance of your work here at Sea Island and what you represent in terms of the safety and security, not only of Canadians, but from citizens around the world who are coming to visit our country and land on the runway a kilometre or two away from here. The idea that the Government of Canada and the Canadian Coast Guard has world class personnel, world class assets, some pretty neat hovercrafts that are available and ready to respond to not only search and rescue or environmental circumstances within 50 nautical miles of where we are now, but principally to respond in the case of an incident at the airport, an emergency at the airport. The work you do is important to the Canadian economy. It’s important to the security and safety of Canadians. And I want all of you to know how much we appreciate every hour and every day you spend here serving Canadians and serving the country.
Merci beaucoup. Thank you very much. (Applause.)
Roger Girouard: Minister, thank you very much for those words. And on behalf of the entire Western Region team, I thank you and the Commissioner and the whole team at Headquarters for what I know are significant efforts in moving this investment forward and delivering us meaningful capabilities at the coal face. Thank you.
Now Minister, your staff tells me you’re up for some questions with the media, so I’ll get my friends to help us out and maybe I’ll just bring you back to the podium to see if there are any.
Hon. Dominic LeBlanc: Sure. So si vous avez des questions, on va – if you have questions, I’m – we’re an open and transparent government, always happy to answer questions from journalists. Look forward to it all the time. Sure.
Question: (Off microphone.)
Hon. Dominic LeBlanc: Sure. So it shouldn’t surprise anybody, but our government is committed to reaching a five percent target of Canada’s ocean – ocean territory in terms of a marine protected area. We have committed publicly in the election campaign to get to five percent at the end of this year, at the end of 2017, but equally significantly, and perhaps more importantly, to get to 10 percent by the end of 2020. So that will require a great deal of work, a great deal of work not only from a science perspective, but also from the people who work in the fishing industry, from indigenous communities, and from other stakeholders who, almost to the person, have recognized something that we feel strongly about. Improving marine ecosystems, improving the sustainability and the long-term sustainability of our fisheries and of our ecosystem management is very much in the interest of the Canadian economy.
So I have seen some of those comments as well. My initial reaction is that people shouldn’t overdramatize what changes this will represent for the fishing industry. We will continue to work with the industry and any other stakeholder who has concerns to ensure that those concerns can be addressed. If a particular area is closed to a certain kind of fishery because there’s a critical part of a main ecosystem and in the case of a 9,000-year-old sponge reef, we think that Canadians expect governments to take their responsibilities in preserving and protecting these critical pieces of our ocean ecosystems, but it doesn’t have to be done in a way that necessarily represents a major economic disruption.
So we’ll continue to work with the industry, and I think people should understand that these decisions that we have made and will continue to make are based on the best scientific advice that we can – that we can gather. It’s also based on an open and transparent process. We’re happy to share the scientific advice with anybody in the industry who is interested in understanding why a particular decision is made, but at the end of the day, we’re confident that we can meet our commitments in terms of marine protected areas, but in a way that in fact doesn’t represent an economic disruption. I would argue if we do it properly, it represents a huge economic opportunity because the one thing that the industry wouldn’t want us to do is poorly manage a marine ecosystem so there is no fishery in a particular species or in a particular area in a certain number of years. So I think we have the same interests. We see the glass as half full. People should resist the temptation to see it as half empty, and I’m sure we can find a way for everybody to understand and believe in the importance of certainly what our government feels very strongly about.
Sorry, it’s a long answer to your question.
D’autres questions? Any other questions?
Roger Girouard: I think we’re good.
Hon. Dominic LeBlanc: Super. Thank you so much. Merci beaucoup.
(2) Media Availability with Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard Dominic LeBlanc Following an Announcement on How the Government of Canada Will Help Strengthen the Coast Guard’s On-the-Scene Capacity During Marine Pollution Incidents.
DFO Media Availability, February 15, 2017
Question: (Inaudible)
Hon. Dominic LeBlanc: Sure. So I today came to give some details of the government’s one and a half billion dollar Ocean Protection Plan. We’re going to be spending hundreds of millions of dollars with the Canadian Coast Guard over the next few years to really improve massively our search and rescue capacity, but also our environmental response capacity.
So what I announced today was a concept where we’ll have dedicated, permanent environmental response teams located across the country that will become specialists in terms of training other local or indigenous groups or other community groups, but will also be themselves with state-of-the-art equipment ready to respond 24 hours a day, seven days a week. And one of the first teams that we’re going to set up is in Port Hardy, British Columbia.
Question: What are some other measures that you invest in?
Hon. Dominic LeBlanc: One of the things we’re investing in is a much greater capacity for the Canadian Coast Guard to be able to tow vessels that require emergency towing. So in a situation where you have a containership or a tanker that may require emergency towing capacity, we want the Canadian Coast Guard, not only commercial tugboats that often respond, but we want some of the big Coast Guard vessels, in the case of an emergency, to be able to respond themselves and ensure that the risk of an environmental incident is much, much, much lower.
Question: Okay. So the fisherman group has a concern over tomorrow’s announcement about new marine protect area. They have concern about this because they think it will do harm to local fishermen also but maybe consumers eventually. So can you please explain to this?
Hon. Dominic LeBlanc: Sure. So I’ve seen those comments. I understand that when the government makes a decision to close a particular area—even if it’s a very, very small area—to certain kinds of commercial fishing, people will understandably voice a concern. The decisions that we have made to protect five percent of Canada’s ocean territory by the end of this year and 10 percent by the end of 2020 mean that we’re going to create across the country on every coast these marine protected areas. Obviously areas as important for the biodiversity of the oceans, for marine ecosystems as 9,000-year-old ocean sponges require, from our view, a very high level of protection, and we’re going to be basing the decisions on scientific advice, and we’ll constantly be updating the science. So once a particular area, for example, may be limited for certain kinds of fisheries because of a concern for the damage it might do to a particular ecosystem, once we do more scientific work, if there are different techniques or different scientific analysis that means we could make different decisions, we would be prepared to do so, but I think the fishing industry also has to think that if we don’t properly protect marine ecosystems for future generations, commercial fisheries will become that much more difficult.
Question: Okay. Thank you very much.
Hon. Dominic LeBlanc: Thanks very much.
(3) Minister of Fisheries and Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard Dominic LeBlanc, together with the MLA Jordan Sturdy; Coastal First Nations President Chief Marilyn Slett; and Gitxaala Nation Fisheries Director Bruce Watkinson of the North Coast Skeena First Nations Stewardship Society, jointly announce the Pacific North Coast Integrated Management Area (PNCIMA) Plan. Minister LeBlanc and the PNCIMA planning partners will provide important information on the Plan and its relation to other ocean initiatives along the Pacific North Coast.
News Conference, February 15, 2017
Patrick Kelly: (Native language) Please be seated. Customary in our protocol, we have a welcome by one of the, a representative of one of the local nations. I’d like to call (inaudible) Debra Sparrow from the Musqueam Nation, to please offer some words of welcome from the Musqueam Nation.
Debra Sparrow: Thank you Patrick. Good morning everyone. What a beautiful day it is. It’s not raining or snowing. It brings me great joy to be here on behalf of my Chief, Wayne Sparrow, who yes, we share the same last name because he is my little brother, and I taught him everything he knows. That’s why he’s Chief. (laughter) Why do people laugh when I say that? (laughter)
It’s not far from the truth, because here in our family units, our knowledge is passed down from generations and my father was a Chief and a businessman. He was he first to create the first four, 40 homes in our territory. He went on to be responsible for one of the biggest (inaudible) built across Canada as well, and he was a mover and a shaker. Because he loved his people. Because he had a passion for his history and who he was, and who he is still today. I hold my hands up to the song that was escorted in, and with them came our ancestors. With them came the spirit of who we are and why we exist today.
We’re all gathered here today for a very important reason. The reason that my grandfather went to Supreme Court, the reason the Sparrow case won. However, when these decisions are made at such a top level, how does it trickle down and affect us as First Nations people who have been here since the beginning of time, and you’ve heard that story.
We’re still here. When we come to this place, False Creek, it’s where my people’s home is. My old people, my ancestors would be shocked to look at this land see how it has filled itself up, how it has built around our villages and where are we? Where are we as First Nations people today? When you come to this city, the only time you can see us is if we’re asked to come forward and welcome you in protocol. Will you remember tomorrow how important this land is and always will be to us? Will you remember when you talk about fish, how valuable it is and that we are, we are the people of the salmon.
Without our salmon, we will no longer exist. But I ask you, dear Minister, have you ever, ever spent enough time on a village or in a place where you can fish, that it becomes a part of your instinct. I challenge you to go Undercover Boss (laughter) and experience that. You cannot make decisions if you haven’t experienced it, dear people. Each and everyone of you. We’re here as a collective, I heard. However, I see the numbers very low of my people, and that upsets me.
However, we stay positive, we work towards those goals. But as we move forward, must we never ever, ever forget our past. This is what we’re taught as First Nations. It’s oh, forget the past. It’s in the past. No. Our past is always with us. Our past is as important to us today as it always is and always will be. We don’t forget. We remember, we make ourselves accountable.
Dear government, you must be made accountable. Canada, the flags behind me, I don’t know sometimes if I want to stand in front of them, until the time comes that our people are where they want to be. We celebrate 150 years, you celebrate 150 years this year. And as someone who is deeply rooted and embedded in the culture and the history of our people as a weaver, as an artist, I’m not sure to what degree I will share that with Canada. I’ve been asked to come forward already and I said I’m not sure.
I don’t know if I can do this. It’s something that I have to think about and I have to dig deep within myself and say to my leaders from the past, my grandfather, who went to Supreme Court, my father, all the women that went before me, the beautiful woman that wove this beautiful piece that I have on, who taught us. And weaving was gone for 85 years because of assimilation. We brought it back some 30 years ago now. I think I was only about 12 when that happened.
But, and fortunately, we have brought it back and it is the value of who we are as people. When the first ship arrived here in 1791 by what is called Spanish banks, he journaled and he said seven canoes have come to greet us. And in those seven canoes, there are men and women and they hold a salmon up to us and we receive it. And we want to give the gift back, but they said no. We don’t want anything from you.
And inside their canoes is the evidence of fishing gear. Fishing gear. They were fishing here long before the first ships arrived. They spent many, many months preparing for the years and the winters that would come. And he said there’s evidence of cedar nets, harpoons, all the things these people need for fishing. So we know and we have to go to court time and time and time again and prove who we are and our existence, and why we have the rights in our own land.
I wonder, dear people, how you would feel if every time you went to make a move with your family and your children, you had to go to court. Wonder how that would feel. But no one thinks about that. They all just say what’s wrong with the First Nations? Why do they want this and why do they want that and they’re all just a bunch of drunks. We’re not. We are strong people coming back to who we are, after such a time that we have spent 150 years in the assimilation process.
We have fine people like Patrick, my brother-in-law Ed John, my sister Wendy, my brother the Chief who are working hard, the fisheries, environmentalists. Let me tell you all that we had those people in place before you arrived. Please reach out to them – some of them are in the room – as you do. Listen to them, not only with up here, but in here. Look for the balance, because there’s a balance in this world and if we start tilting too far one way, with only oil in mind and buildings and buildings and buildings, we are going to tilt. And when we tilt, there might not be a way back.
So I ask you, dear people in place, these are the things you need to think about when you’re making decisions. The value of who we are as human beings, cause this not only does affect us anymore as First Nations, it affects you. When there is no more salmon for us to have over there across at those fine restaurants, what are we going to do? We look across the water and we see those pretty, are they, artwork that someone put up there. I was a little bit upset when I saw it, and I thought where’s our people in this again? Those should be house posts standing there, not – I mean, they’re nice, but here we go. Being forgotten in our own land again.
And this is the job that I have as an artist, and they call me an artist, but I’m a person who creates and holds on to the ties of our past and our history through the work I do. So I hold my hands up to each and every one of you and we’ll stay positive, positive to where our direction is that we’re going, and hope that we can all find those solutions as we move through this world that’s ever, ever so in such a place today.
With that, I leave you with good hearts, I hope, and good minds to have your discussions, and I’ll remember you and this day. And when I go home, and talk to my Fishery Officer, I’ll remind her too of where it is we’re going on behalf of my grandfather, my father, but mostly on behalf of my ancestors. But yours as well because never forget who you are and where you come from because that’s what that man said before he left this world, my grandfather at 100, he said Debra, know who you are and know where you come from, because if you don’t know that, you’re nothing.
So in remembering, I know I’m not nothing. I’m a successful, intelligent, strong woman based on who I am. My roots are planted firmly in the very soil that our ancestors are buried. Renounce to the First Nations. Who said this land belonged to you? I did not see it written anywhere. There’s no sign on the mountaintop. Can anybody, does anybody know that quote? They don’t. Pierre Elliott Trudeau. And I said to myself, imagine, it isn’t written on the mountaintop, it’s written in the earth. Wherever you open the earth, the evidence of our people is there. That’s where it’s written. We don’t write the same way as you.
Imagine. So we continue our journey. We continue our fight. We continue our negotiations and our friendships and I hold my hands to each and every one of you. (native language) my dear ones. Thank you.
Patrick Kelly: (native language)
My name is also Patrick Kelly, I’m the Chair of the Coastal First Nations Board. And I want to say (native language) it’s a good day. All the Chiefs and leaders that have come. (native language)
Bienvenue tout le monde. Bienvenue monsieur le ministre.
Welcome to everyone. I’d like to also thank the Heiltsuk drummers for bringing in our honoured guests in an appropriate way. (native language) I’d like to acknowledge the, the Chiefs that are in the room. (native language) Chief Marilyn Slett, Heiltsuk Nation. (native language) Chief Cliff White, (native language) Chief Wally Webber, Nuxalk, (native language) Hereditary Chief Harvey Humchitt, Heiltsuk Nation, Jessie Housty, Councillor for the Heiltsuk Nation, Bruce Watkins, Watkins, Watkins, sorry, from, from the Skeena, I’d never get that name right.
Bruce Watkinson: (off microphone).
Patrick Kelly: Yeah. (laughter) Welcome. Yeah. And Honourable Minister, Member of the Legislature in British Columbia, welcome. I’d like to just to outline for you the, the proceedings of the day today. We’re going to be going through some basic information presentations from the Minister, from Jordan and the Chiefs representing the signatories for the organization. Afterwards, there will be an opportunity for the, the Minister and the media and the leaders to, to have their conversations, as they do, off to the side over here.
So without any further ado, I’d like to call upon Minister Leblanc.
Hon. Dominic LeBlanc: So, well good morning everybody and thank you Patrick for the kind introduction. I also want to begin by thanking elder Debra Sparrow from Musqueam for those moving words. Debra, you asked a question that I spend enough time to understand the connection that indigenous people have to the fish. I’ll probably never have the privilege of spending enough time.
So I’ll answer your question that way, but one of the best memories I have as a young boy, when my father had my job was being at the opening of a salmon fishery on his friend, Jimmy Seaweed’s fishing vessel, and we spent the whole night with Jimmy Seaweed learning about indigenous people and the attachment to the salmon and that was one of the most moving memories I have as a little boy with my dad on the coast of this great province.
And Debra, I’ll have the opportunity this afternoon when I go to Musqueam to meet with your brother, to talk and leaders of the Musqueam community to talk about fisheries management and sharing of the resources and working collaboratively. So I hope that by the end of the day, I’m a little further along in my journey than perhaps I was when I got to Vancouver late last night.
I also want to acknowledge obviously that we’re on the traditional territory of the Coastal Salish peoples. I want to take, before I offer some remarks on this important moment, an opportunity, as Patrick did, thank some people who are participating in this important ceremony with us. My colleague from the House of Commons, Fin Donnelly, who is the New Democratic Party Fisheries Critic and somebody I work with and admire who represents this province in the House of Commons, I think in a terrific way and whose insights and his judgements I know mean a lot to me and to people who work on managing the Fisheries. So Fin, thank you for being here and thank you for everything you do for this province and for Canada.
MLA Jordan Sturdy is also with us. He’s going to say a few words in a moment on behalf of the Government of British Columbia and Marilyn Slett, who’s President of the Coastal First Nations. I had the opportunity to meet Chief Slett and Jessie and a number of other people from the Heiltsuk Nation in a difficult circumstance last fall in Bella Bella. It’s a privilege to be with you again, Marilyn this morning and it’s a partnership and an inspiration and the strength of your people and the Heiltsuk Nation is an inspiration for all of us as we try to do the right thing for Canada. So thank you for being here.
Chief Cliff White as well. And Bruce Watkinson from the North Coast Skeena First Nation Stewardship Society. Thank you for your presence here today. I came with, with me last night on the flight from Ottawa, I brought some senior officials from our department. Kevin Stringer, who’s the Associate Deputy Minister of Fisheries and Oceans is with us, as well as Commissioner Jody Thomas of the Canadian Coast Guard and Bonnie Antcliff, who is the Associate Regional Director General here in Vancouver, and there are a number of other officials from our department who have been working, in many cases, for many years in partnership and collaboration with all of you to make this important moment possible.
So today, we have reached a remarkable milestone with respect to ocean planning and we’ve come together, I hope, to celebrate that. As most British Columbians know, and Canadians who have been fortunate enough to spend time in your great province, the waters off the Pacific North Coast have enormous, have tremendous ecological, social and economic importance.
Ecologically, this region is renowned for its rugged beauty, biodiversity and abundance of marine life ranging from rare kelps to the renowned and iconic killer whales. Socially, the waters off the Pacific North Coast have sustained indigenous people and their cultures, as Debra said, literally since the beginning of time. And today, 30 Coastal First Nations still use these waters for traditional fishing and food gathering.
Sur le plan économique, beaucoup de gens dépendent des zones littorales de cette région pour gagner leur vie. Cela comprend bien, évidemment, des pêcheurs commerciaux et des exploitations d’aquaculture et qu’on vient d’ailleurs de souligner le rôle de premier plan que jouent les ports d’un bout à l’autre de la côte dans l’acheminement des marchandises au marché. Les entreprises de pêche récréative et d’écotourisme dépendent également des eaux au large de cette côte.
There’s no question that the demands placed on our oceans and marine resources are higher than ever before. In order to gain a better understanding of how the Pacific North Coast was being used, federal, provincial and indigenous partners came together in 2008 – think about that, nine years ago – through a collaborative governance arrangement to examine how ocean activities in this region were being managed and what we could do collectively to manage them in a better way.
Together, all of you developed the Pacific North Coast Integrated Management Area Plan. Now, all bureaucrats in the room will know you can’t have a long title like that. You have to come up with an acronym. So PNCIMA is the acronym that describes this remarkable plan that all of you have worked on for almost a decade.
The implementation of this plan will contribute to a healthy, safe and prosperous ocean area that encompasses approximately 102,000 square kilometres. Once this initial assessment was complete, all of you set about developing a more holistic approach to protecting the Pacific North Coast ecosystem so it can remain healthy and productive for generations to come.
These initiatives have been made possible thanks to the involvement of a number of very, very significant leaders in many communities. Coastal First Nations, obviously, Council of the Haida Nation, North Coast Skeena First Nation Stewardship Society, and the Central Coast Indigenous Resource Alliance. British Columbia’s Ministry of Forest, Lands and Natural Resource Operations and federal partners, including my own department, but Environment and Climate Change Canada as well, Parks Canada, Natural Resources Canada and Transport Canada as well.
Today, standing alongside our partners, I’m pleased to announce that the Government of Canada is officially and formally endorsing the PNCIMA plan. By signing on to this plan, our government is demonstrating our long-term ongoing commitment to working with the provinces, territories, indigenous peoples and stakeholders to better co-manage, co-manage our ocean resources.
This model can serve to inspire others. As I thought about and read about the remarkable project that is PNCIMA, I thought of some of the indigenous peoples that I represent in New Brunswick, some of the provincial governments that I work with on Canada’s East Coast, and even in the Arctic. The model that you have built over the last nine years should and can serve, I hope to inspire other parts of the country to do the right thing in terms of co-managing ocean resources.
Our government recognizes that the only way to have a prosperous economy is also to have a sustainable environment. The PNCIMA plan should guide all of us in trying to strike the right balance that is essential for protecting the long-term health of our oceans’ ecosystems. I was particularly pleased that a lot of the work coming from the PNCIMA process will help Canada meet its ocean protections commitments that we have made by 2020.
Here on the Pacific Coast, the Governments of Canada and British Columbia, in partnership with indigenous peoples, are committed to develop marine protected areas, reaching 10% of Canada’s ocean territory by 2020 is an ambitious target for marine protected areas, but it’s something which has also been a key priority of the PNCIMA plan. And frankly, without your work that we’re celebrating today, I don’t have any confidence that we’d be able to get to that important target that we’ve committed to reaching in a collaborative and appropriate way.
En établissant un réseau d’aire marine protégée le long de côte nord du Pacifique, nous serons mieux placés pour protéger été conserver les habitants importants, les espèces marines en voie de disparition, de même que les zones de grande productivité biologique et riche en biodiversité.
In addition to marine protected areas, there are a number of other significant ocean related initiatives underway in the Pacific North Coast, including what the Prime Minister announced in November in Vancouver. We called it the Ocean Protections Plan. This is a historic $1.5 billion investment to improve marine safety, improve environmental response, but most importantly, prevent, prevent pollution incidents and environmental circumstances that so often communities have struggled to respond to.
So working with all of you, working with indigenous peoples, our partners in the government of British Columbia and community leaders, we think that this investment in the Canadian Coast Guard and in building up the capacity of Canadians and coastal peoples to be better prepared to prevent and to respond in these circumstances is exactly what Canadians from coast to coast to coast expect their government to do. And there’s no place in the country more important to get this right than on the Pacific Coast.
So in conclusion, the PNCIMA plan provides certainly for our government an overarching planning framework that will help us guide activities and decisions of the future in a way that is more collaborative and better coordinated amongst all our partners.
Before I give the podium to others who want to talk about this important moment, I really want to say thank you. Many of you have worked diligently and patiently to get your country and your province and the North Coast of this magnificent province to the place that we’re in today. It is an example, as I said, for the rest of the country of how collaborative co-management can be done, and I hope that it’s an inspiration that we can keep in our hearts, in our minds, in our imagination as collective we have to make decisions in the years and years to come, but conscious of the work that all of you have done and the important significance that we’re underlining here today.
I’m confident that I believe that their patience and the work and the diligence that so many of you have shown will be something that you can be proud of for decades and decades to come.
Merci beaucoup.
Thank you very much.
(applause)
Patrick Kelly: Merci ministre LeBlanc.
I want to correct my, my mashing of Bruce Watkinson’s name and title. President of the North Coast Skeena First Nations Stewardship Society.
I’d now like to invite Member of the Legislative Assembly for West Vancouver Sea-to-Sky, Jordan Sturdy.
Jordan Sturdy: Thank you. Good morning everybody. And while I do represent West Vancouver Sea-to-Sky, I live in, actually in Mount Currie in the midst of the Lil’wat people, but represent the Squamish Nation, members of the Squamish Nation as well as the Lil’wat.
It is a real pleasure to be here today. This is an exciting day. Unfortunately, Minister Thomson, the Minister of Forest, Lands and Natural Resource Operations is unable to be here this morning. In fact, I think we were, the Minister and I were talking. We’re lucky to get leave as we’re both, the Houses are sitting and our, our Throne Speech was yesterday.
But he’s asked me to come here today to make a few remarks on his behalf. I would like to echo Minister LeBlanc’s sentiments about, about the remarkable milestones that collectively we achieved and are here to celebrate and formalize today. I’d also like to extend a gracious thank you to the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations who’ve welcomed us to their traditional territory of the Coast Salish people today. I also want to recognize the many leaders and elders who have joined us from all up and down the coast of British Columbia.
We appreciate the efforts that have, that you’ve taken to join us here today, so thank you. And thank you to my fellow speakers here, Minister LeBlanc, representing the federal government, Chief Slett representing the Coastal First Nations, Chief Cliff White and Mr. Watkins, the North Coast Skeena First Nations Stewardship Society and First Nations communities whose traditional territories range throughout the North Pacific Coast.
Today, with the PNCIMA, we’re celebrating a tremendous achievement through partnership and collaboration. Born of a mutual respect and willingness to work together, the PNCIMA initiative was not only a partnership between the federal, provincial and First Nations government, but a collaboration between those partners and the people who live, work and play along the North Pacific Coast, people who are passionate about the ecological integrity and sustainable management of the vibrant coastal communities.
PNCIMA was built with input from a diverse group of interested parties, federal and provincial government staff, First Nations, and their invaluable, traditional and local knowledge, environmental groups, scientists and representatives of industry. Many of these groups are represented here today and I want to thank you for your countless hours of work over many, many years to bring this process to where we are.
Together, we developed a strategic and integrated oceans management plan that provides direction on and demonstrates a commitment to ecosystem-based and adaptive management. This plan helps us balance ecological, economic, social and cultural interests in an area that is incredibly important, not just to the people of the North Coast, but to people of British Columbia, the people of Canada, and I would venture to say the people of the world.
An area that is also under increasing pressure to meet the demands of the world’s growing population, this plan helps us speak with a unified voice and proceed with a common vision. It’s ecosystem-based management framework will help decision makers to sustainably guide the use of marine activities and resources within the plan area. I would like to reiterate the importance of the partnerships that have grown through this process and acknowledge in particular the relationships that have developed between the province and the 17 member First Nation through the Marine Plan Partnership.
The Marine Plan Partnership used the ecosystem based management approach outlined in PNCIMA to make detailed recommendations for marine uses and activities within the geographic area. With the Great Bear Rainforest and its 6.4 million hectares sitting beside and inextricably linked with the PNCIMA area and the recommendations provided through MAP, this is one of the largest areas in the world managed under ecosystem based management approaches. This is something that I think we really do need to celebrate.
We should be proud of this collective accomplishment. On behalf of Minister Thomson, the Province of British Columbia, I look forward to realizing our long-term goals as we move into the real work in the implementation of PNCIMA.
Thank you for celebrating with us today. Thank you.
(aplause)
Patrick Kelly: I’d like now to call upon (native language) Chief Marilyn Slett, Coastal First Nations.
Chief Marilyn Slett: Good morning and thank you. I too would also like to acknowledge the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh on whose unceded traditional territories we are on today. I also want to acknowledge our Heiltsuk singers that sang us into the room here today. It’s their strength that gives us the resilience to do the work that we do, and also they carry our history of our people. It’s really important to acknowledge that.
I also want to thank Debra for her very empowered and very succinct way of describing the resilience of indigenous people and, and it really set a wonderful tone for the important announcement and work that we’re continuing to do here today.
We have some leaders that are here with us. I would like to introduce them. We have Wally Webber, who is the Chief of the Nuxalk Nation. Jessie Housty, Heiltsuk Councillor, Harvey Humchitt, Heiltsuk (inaudible).
The Coastal First Nations has worked tirelessly to achieve a thriving economy, healthy communities and ecosystems, and recognition of our aboriginal rights and reconciliation. Today and in the future, reconciliation will play an important role in determining our future. Reconciliation requires leadership and sustained efforts by First Nations and government. It requires us to work together to create partnerships that respect our traditional lands and waters, values our unique cultures and laws, and provides for economic quality for our communities.
We believe the PNCIMA agreement is a positive step towards reconciliation. We believe the PNCIMA agreement represents a key step in our journey towards reconciliation. It ensures strategic, forward planning for managing and protecting our waters. Through the implementation of the PNCIMA agreement, we hope to see streamlining and efficiencies in what we have already achieved through the Marine Planning Partnership, Marine Protected Areas Planning and Oceans Protection Plan.
We have always known that if we take care of our lands and waters, they will take care of us. I think one of our leaders summed it up perfectly when she said I recall the old people saying that families who have the right to fish in a particular river system also have the responsibility to maintain those river systems. Those are the values that we’re speaking of here today. And that is why ecosystem based management is an integral part of the agreement.
First Nations have played a leadership role in bringing together a range of interests, including governments and stakeholders. To address the unsustainable policies and practices that have damaged the environment and devastated our coastal waters. Our coast deserves the best stewardship that the world can provide. This will take strong leadership and commitment to work together to ensure a strong future for our communities and our ecosystems.
I look forward to working with government and others to safeguard the well-being of our ocean, our resources and our communities. (native language) Thank you for your attention.
(applause)
Patrick Kelly: Now I’d like to call on (native language) Chief Cliff White, Chief of the Gitxaala First Nation and the North Coast Skeena First Nations Stewardship Society.
Chief Clifford White: (native language)
Ladies and gentlemen, elders and distinguished guests, Minister LeBlanc and Minister from the province, and, on behalf of Steven, I’m honoured to be here today. It’s been a long journey for a lot of the people who are in this room as well as people, a lot of the stakeholders who have been working with PNCIMA over the last decade and a bit. It’s been a long journey for, for a lot of, a lot of you have spent quite a bit of time on working on this plan. Traditionally, with our people, our First Nations people, this is not a new venture.
As has already been reiterated by Debra and others who basically state that when we take anything from the environment, we have to also give back. We have to also give back for the next generations to come. So it’s always important to our First Nations communities in terms of working on this method and it’s taught by our hereditary and elders who I’m speaking on behalf of today as well, who taught us how to work with the environment and how to make sure that sustainability is there for generations to come, not only in terms of our children, but our children’s children and working towards that.
So also, on behalf of the North Coast Skeena First Nations Stewardship Society, Chief Don Roberts sends his regrets that he isn’t able to be here today, but his heart is definitely here. And that community of Kitsumkalum, Kitselas, Gitga’at (ph) have all been working very hard with this group as well to make sure that these processes continue to be moved forward from their own traditional and ecological knowledge that they brought to the table. And so there’s a lot of First Nations traditions that are embedded within this agreement.
So I congratulate each and every one of you for the work that you’ve done. You know, your stick-to-itiveness in terms of being able to bring it this far, which is well over 11 years in, in the making.
Ecosystem based management is really important to us. A few years ago, we actually made sure that the sponge reefs out in the Hecate Strait was protected and it’s nice to hear that, I think it’s tonight or tomorrow night, tonight, we’re also going to be announcing that we’re going to be protecting that as well.
But just note that things that Debra has talked about for our First Nations is so important. That’s where we get our food from, you know, when we open our doors or our windows in the morning. We basically say that’s our deepfreeze, you know, and so it’s where the salmon come from, the seal. If you haven’t tasted seal, it’s a really good meat, the same with, whenever we’re out on the island or, or out in the environment, we basically are able just to eat right from the (inaudible).
So on behalf of our (native language) our elders, you know, we wish each and every one of you the strength and opportunity to take this forward with each of our First Nations to work together with the province and the federal government and all of the stakeholders on moving this forward. We look forward to the implementation of this program, but a person that’s actually been working on this, and I just take the spotlight, is Bruce Watkinson.
On behalf of PNCIMA, he’s actually seen this right from day one, when we started off with the North Coast Land Resource Management PIan and we wanted to combine the two of them together or all of it together, just includes the air as well and those which are beneath the ground, but we weren’t able to. So people that came to the table basically started separating everything out and there went marine. So it’s a little bit difficult for, as First Nations in terms of looking at things from a holistic perspective on how these pieces were going to be able to fit together.
And 11 years later, you know, it’s nice to see that this marine plan, PNCIMA, has actually come together. And so Bruce will be speaking more specifically on specifics because he’s been there before day one. And so, thank you very much.
(applause)
Patrick Kelly: And our final speaker, Bruce Watkinson. He’s also the Fisheries Director for the Gitxaala Nation and the President of the North Coast Skeena First Nations Stewardship Society.
Bruce Watkinson: Good morning everybody. Pleasure to be here. I just want to acknowledge Debra Sparrow from the Musqueam First Nation for her opening remarks and welcoming us to their territory this morning. Also want to acknowledge the Heiltsuk Nation singers and drummers for bringing in myself and my colleagues into the room this morning. Thanks to all the Chiefs that have come and travelled all this way to be here today and thanks to the Minister and the MLA for participating.
Before I start, you know, one of the advantages of having a generic last name like Watkinson, Williamson (inaudible) is that it gets me out of a lot of speeding tickets. (laughter) So, so no problem, Patrick. Don’t apologize.
Patrick Kelly: (off microphone).
Bruce Watkinson: Yeah. But I’m not, I used to be the Executive Director for the North Coast Skeena First Nations Stewardship Society, but now, nowadays, I’m just plain old Bruce Watkinson, Fisheries Director for the Gitxaala First Nation.
Walking into the room this morning, I was commenting to a few of my colleagues it’s almost like a high school reunion. (laughter) I’m surprised this many people showed up and still remembered PNCIMA. (laughter) It’s great to see everybody. You know, we’re all a little grayer, we have a little less here, a little more here. (laughter) So it’s really, really good to see everybody.
And it is with, to have that, the formal official endorsement of the PNCIMA Plan, I think it at the very least, leaves a lot of us with a sense of accomplishment and achievement. There was a ton of work that went into this and I was one of the, the, one of the gentlemen that signed the MOU that started the PNCIMA adventure back in 2008. And I haven’t been holding my breath all this time, but, but we are very excited as First Nations to see that the federal government has sent another strong signal to First Nations regarding the management of our territories and the resources within those territories.
You know, for me, and it’s been touched on by my colleagues, the importance of the area and things like that, but just a little back story. It really started, you know, in probably 2002-2003 when myself and a gentleman by the name of Ken Cripps (ph), on Central Coast, it was our job to go out and talk to First Nation communities about the challenges they face and the interest they have socially, economically, ecologically and most importantly, culturally within the area that we live in. And we heard a lot from those communities.
There’s a lot of hard work done by elected officials within First Nations governments, the hereditary governments that are still strong in a lot of our communities and of course, all the different stewardship staff and planning staff in these communities. And it was really when we started embarking on those community-based plans, you know, there was two or three years work before we even talked to the feds about entering into a formal process. So there’s a lot of, a lot of work.
And like Clifford said, I think it is reflected very well and provides a great backbone to the PNCIMA plan, that knowledge that we have as First Nations people that live in these areas. It’s not, it’s not by fluke, it’s not by chance that these areas are still what they are and have the resources that they do. It’s because of the First Nations people, and it’s because of our stewardship. And I think, like Debra talked about, it’s knowing our past that helps us move forward into the future so that we can maintain vibrant cultures and vibrant economies and looking out for the environment.
You can’t separate the environment and our culture. You can’t separate the resources from our culture. And that’s really important to note in the work that we’ve entailed and are moving forward on.
So again, you know, it’s a positive signal from the federal government and we’re very encouraged, you know, number one, starting with the discussions we’ve had with other Ministers regarding the moratorium on the shipping of crude oil through, through our territories, you know, the announcement that the Northern Enbridge Gateway Project was not moving forward was another positive signal.
We have other initiatives that we’re continuing to work on with the federal government around revitalizing marine economies, putting together, designing and implementing a marine protected area network so that we can have that balance. And that’s, I think, the key, the key messages. We need to find that balance between protecting what’s important environmentally, socially, culturally and still allowing our communities to thrive and move forward with healthy economies.
So that’s about it for me. I want to thank everybody for coming out. It’s been, it’s been a long time, but again, I just want to say that hopefully, a lot of us can leave this room today with a sense of accomplishment and achievement. I mean, there was an incredible amount of work that went into the PNCIMA plan and we’re looking forward to moving, moving forward with several initiatives to, to make this world a better place for all of us.
Thanks.
(applause)
Parick Kelly: Thank you Bruce. We now have two items left and one of which is the, the official signing ceremony which the principals will do at the table here. And the Minister also wants to present some, some plaques to the PNCIMA partners for the, the process and the events that have gone on. So we’ll now have that with the, the principals, Marilyn, Cliff, Minister and Jason.
(signing ceremony)
I want to thank, thank all of you for coming to witness this very important event today and we now have an opportunity for the media, should you have questions or wish to discuss with the Minister, the MLA, Jordan and the Chiefs, we’ll do that over here. So that calls to an end the formal part of the proceedings. Thank you so much.
Media Database 