255 



CHAPTER 21 



POLICY 



IMPLEMENTATION AND 



REVIEW 



. . .the present situation cannot be quickly 

 resolved by one or two system changes. 

 Instead, it will require hard work and respon- 

 sible decisions by high quality managers for a 

 period of years .... We would hope that this 

 Commission will start this process happening, 

 as the potential of the B.C. fishing industry is 

 too great to be lost, both to our economy and 

 to Canada as a nation. 



THE PACIFIC COAST FISHING 

 VESSEL OWNERS GUILD' 



The recommendations in this report call for a host of 

 changes to federal fisheries policy as it applies to the 

 Pacific region. Some of these imply minor changes; oth- 

 ers call for fundamental reforms. In this chapter I suggest 

 steps for implementing these changes and keeping pace 

 with new challenges in the future. 



POLICY IMPLEMENTATION 



Fisheries policy is embodied in federal legislation, 

 ancillary regulations, fishing licences, and administrative 

 policies and procedures. Implementation of my propo.sals 

 will require changes to all of these policy instruments in 

 varying degrees, and special administrative arrangements 

 will be needed to mould them into a modem and cohe- 

 sive system. 



Developing the Policy Instruments 



To begin with, all of the policy instruments require 

 thorough review and overhaul both to rectify present 

 deficiencies and to implement needed reform. 



Legislation Although the Department is directly 

 involved in the administration of nine federal statutes in 

 the Pacific region, the core of fisheries legislation is the 

 Fisheries Act. The legislative changes required to imple- 

 ment my proposals centre on this statute. 



Originally passed in 1867. and riddled with amend- 

 ments over the decades, the Act is as old as Canada and 

 its age shows. 



Many provisions of the archaic Act are anachronistic 

 and ambiguous. For example, it requires that a dory be 

 equipped with a compass, two quarts of drinking water 

 and two pounds of food for each crew-member, and a 

 fog-horn or trumpet. And as I pointed out in Chapter 16 

 it contains the out-dated sentence of hard labour, a 

 serious ambiguity resulting from what appears to be a 

 drafting error, and inconsistencies among levels of penal- 

 ties. 



Furthermore, matters are divided between the Act and 

 its supplementing regulations unsatisfactorily. Crucially 

 important features of policy, such as commercial licens- 

 ing and fleet development arrangements, receive scant 

 attention in the Act; these and other areas of important 

 and sensitive policy are found in the regulations, passed 

 without formal debate in Parliament. In contrast, details 

 that should be in regulations, such as the minimum dis- 

 tance between stationary salmon nets, are set out in the 

 Act in painstaking detail. 



Third, the scope of the Fisheries Act is too narrow and 

 its tone is entirely punitive. It is silent about the manage- 

 ment and planning responsibilities of the Department 

 and the social and economic objectives it is to meet. In 

 addition, it leaves the Department open to legal challenge 

 in carr\ing out some of its most important programs, 

 such as alkx:ating catches among sectors of fishing fleets. 

 Almost all of the Act is devoted to creating offences and 

 prescribing penalties. 



Finally, the Act fails to reflect the differences in char- 

 acter between the fisheries on the Pacific coast and those 

 on the Atlantic, with their different resources, fishing 

 methods, licensing systems, traditions and problems. 

 Many provisions that are intended to apply nationwide 

 are extremely general in scope. This leaves important fea- 

 tures of policy to regulations, leading to the imbalance 

 between the Act and regulations described above. As 

 well, it places too much decision-making power on the 

 Minister, and delegates no authority to the regional 

 officials, who must actually make most management deci- 

 sions. 



Thus, a major overhaul of the Fisheries Act is long 

 overdue; new policies should not be implemented 

 through yet another patchwork of amendments. Accord- 

 ingly, I recommend that — 



1. The Fisheries Act should be repealed and replaced by 

 a modern, lucid statute containing the main principles 

 of fisheries polic.> for Canada. The new Act should — 



i) Include a clear statement of national fisheries 

 policy objectives. 



