Good afternoon. Thank you for inviting me to appear before your committee today.

My name is Marc Plourde. I am the CEO of Quebec Outfitters Federation, which has been in existence since 1948. The federation represents a group of 350 outfitters and 12 regional associations. Its mission is to represent and promote the collective interests of its members from a sustainable development perspective.

Quebec has a legal definition of what an outfitter is. An outfitter is a company that provides, for a fee, accommodation or services, equipment for the recreational practice of hunting, fishing and trapping activities. There are just over 600 active outfitters in Quebec. Our network welcomes over 425,000 people annually who come for hunting, fishing, trapping and outdoors recreational activities. The Quebec Outfitters Federation is the largest network of accommodation in nature. In Quebec, this means 5,000 shelter units and over 32,000 beds.

There are two types of outfitters in Quebec. In both cases, they provide accommodation since that's part of the legal definition. We have outfitters with non-exclusive rights, whose mandate is economic development. They are mostly located on public lands. There are also outfitters with exclusive rights. In addition to having a mandate for economic development, they have to protect the land.

The term “outfitter with exclusive rights” does not mean that they have exclusive access to lands, but that the exclusivity applies to the practice of hunting and fishing activities.

There are around 180 outfitters with exclusive rights in Quebec. In Quebec, lands where outfitters have exclusive rights range from 2 km² to 400 km², for a total of almost 25,000 km².

There are almost 420 companies with non-exclusive rights that are, as I said, mainly located on public lands. However, some of them are on private lands. A number of those companies are also located around salmon rivers.

Let's talk about the management of fish by outfitters. First of all, outfitters are required to produce an annual activity report. All outfitters therefore provide the government with a registry of the clients and a registry of catch. They also list the wildlife development sites and the stocks on their land. The outfitters with exclusive rights have a management plan that is revised every three years and submitted to the department. The management plan is based on inventories and on the knowledge available on the ecology and the biology of the bodies of water on the land. Each outfitter has management objectives that are set according to the knowledge and operational monitoring carried out every year. All our member outfitters provide fishing opportunities. Over 256,000 fishers go to our outfitters. The estimated revenues are over $75 million.

Among the most sought-after species, the most popular in our outfitters in Quebec is the brook trout, commonly known as speckled trout. There is also walleye and pike, the predatory fish that are extremely popular, as well as lake trout. In northern Quebec, you find the Arctic char. Clearly, as I was saying, about 30 outfitters provide salmon fishing opportunities.

Let me turn to the profile of our outfitters' clients. Our most recent numbers are from 2011. The visitors to the outfitters contributed to almost 1,200,000 days of activity. Almost 80% of those activities are performed by Quebec residents, and almost 5% by people from the rest of Canada, 10% from the U.S. and 6% by people from abroad. We see that just over 20% of clients who come to the outfitters are from outside Quebec.

Clearly, outfitter fishing is the most popular activity, generating over 65% of all the days of activity with outfitters.

In terms of fishing management, the QOF is one of the founding members of the Quebec round table on freshwater aquaculture. Almost all the fish stocked in our water comes from private fish farms.

Outfitters represent about 60% of the stocked fish market in Quebec, so about 425 tonnes a year. There are 125 outfitters that stock some of their waters, primarily with brook trout. In those outfitters, the most popular technique is the put-and-take. We work with our people to increase the recapture rate by sport fishing, so that there is maximum return on the stocking. The economic benefits of outfitter stocking are estimated at over $40 million a year.

I will now talk about the issues in our sector.

In Quebec, there is an issue with the protection of indigenous sources. We are particularly vigilant when it comes to maintaining the indigenous populations and strains. We make sure that we don't use more bodies of water for stocking than necessary. There is a particular issue with allopatric brook trout pools. Those are pure brook trout populations, meaning that they don't live with other species. We are talking about the Croissant Vermeil and the Monts-Valin in the regions of Saguenay—Lac-Saint-Jean and the North Shore. That is characteristic of Quebec and we hope to protect it.

Invasive species are a different issue. This includes the diseases that those species can bring because of the use of bait fish, among others. In Quebec, there are discussions about the need to be cautious about that. The importing of bait fish has been banned recently in Quebec. Once again, we need to preserve the indigenous species.

People are afraid for the river system. The Asian carp seems to have reached the Great Lakes. For us, that is a very clear threat.

In terms of the issues that we are starting to think about, I would add the impact of new technology on the success of fishing. The sonar is increasingly sophisticated, which significantly increases the success of fishing. Clearly, we need to err on the side of caution in that respect.

Let me turn to the major outfitter trends. Fly fishing has regained popularity. It used to be associated with catching salmon, but it is increasingly developed for other species. Young people are particularly drawn to this type of fishing. As I said earlier, there is an issue with the next generation of clients. The baby boomers are getting old and they represent a major part of the clientele. So there is a concern about renewing the clientele.

Fly fishing is growing. It is appealing to us because it attracts young people in particular. Fly fishing is often associated with the practice of non-retention or catch and release. This practice could reduce the pressure on fish populations in our bodies of water.

Fishing is increasingly being practised in a context of multiple activities. Young people between 25 and 44 are still interested in fishing, but much more in a context where they can do other outdoor activities.

That is bringing about a change in our clients' traditional practices. Usually, they came on three-, four- and five-day trips to fish, pure and simple. Today, outfitters have to have a range of products, providing the opportunity to discover nature and observe wildlife, as well as the more sporting activities. Finally, we are seeing—