Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, committee.

As mentioned, my name is Matt Sullivan, and I'm the executive director of the P.E.I. Aquaculture Alliance. Our organization is a non-profit association that represents the aquaculture industries on P.E.I., the primary industries being the mussel sector, cultured oysters, and a smaller finfish industry.

I'm just going to give a brief overview of the three sectors and what they mean for P.E.I. and talk a little bit about the environmental stewardship that the industry leads. I'll end with a few thoughts our industry has on the Fisheries Act.

I'll start with the mussel industry. It's a very important industry for Prince Edward Island. It creates a lot of employment and economic generation in the rural areas of P.E.I. Mussels are farmed in the waters of P.E.I. It takes one to two years to grow the mussels to market size. All the seeds are collected naturally in the water; it's very much a natural process. Mussels are harvested all year round. Even when we have ice, they go out on four-wheelers and whatnot, so for 52 weeks of the year we are harvesting mussels on P.E.I.

The industry is moving a bit towards a certified organic product. The fundamental change, though, is.... They are organic to begin with. Mussels eat phytoplankton, and the industry is very cautious in how it treats the environment they are in. It is going towards this, but it's really just record-keeping and costs. The mussels process is pretty much organic to begin with.

Mussel production is year round, as I mentioned, and employs about 1,500 people in P.E.I., which in a small province of 140,000 is pretty significant, especially in the rural areas.

I'll talk for just a minute about the oyster industry. The oyster industry is an important industry in P.E.I. It's a growing sector. The demand for oysters globally is huge, so we're just trying to keep up with demand. There are two methods by which oysters are grown. There is bottom culture, which is spreading seed on the bottom of the lease and then harvesting them several years afterwards. The amount of time it takes depends on what bay they are in, but it could be from five to seven years.

The more modern technique for growing oysters is in suspended bags and cages, where they are closer to the phytoplankton in the water, which is near the surface. That shaves off the length of time needed to grow the product, and it's a higher-quality product as well.

There are about 15 oyster processors on P.E.I. and there are several hundred oyster growers. Again, it's a growing market. There are a lot of young people getting into that business too. It's not just in P.E.I. that it's growing. It's an opportunity for all of Canada. Basically all the Maritime provinces have very strong growth plans for oyster production.

Just as a couple of notes on the finfish sectors in P.E.I., we really don't have adequate water depth for cage culture, so all of our finfish is land-based. We have a handful of companies. They're mainly hatcheries where they grow the eggs, and they'll do the grow out and later production in other provinces in Canada.

I want to talk a little bit about the environmental responsibility that the industry leads. The P.E.I. aquaculture industry is very innovative and recognizes that it will have better businesses by treating the environment well, because it is essentially reliant on the environment to feed its shellfish so that they grow.

The aquaculture alliance has developed a few key documents that help to lead the industry on the environmental responsibility side of things. First of all, we have shellfish aquaculture industry environmental policy that states the industry's position on sustainable management, water quality, ecosystems, and waste management, among other things. We also have the shellfish aquaculture environmental code of practice, referred to as SAECOP. This really outlines the best practices as to how to ensure environmental responsibility while also having maximum product quality. This industry is committed to managing aquaculture operations in an environmentally friendly and sustainable manner. The commitment is really demonstrated through those initiatives I just mentioned.

I'd also like to add that our organization has a full-time biologist on staff. He's our research and development coordinator. This is key for the industry in that, if there are any challenges or whatnot with the environment, our R and D coordinator is the lead on that, leading any science projects and whatnot. We collaborate with government, with academia, with the industry, and other partners to be the lead on this research.

I have a couple of comments to make on the Fisheries Act, and how it affects the aquacultural industry. I've only been in my role for about a year and a half, so I wasn't in place before the changes to section 35 took place in 2012. But in speaking to others involved in the industry, it was found that the changes that were made were positive ones that had good outcomes for the aquaculture industry. An example of what was felt to be a positive outcome is that there's a more streamlined approach to proving low-risk projects, such as, say, oyster aquaculture leases, which is deemed a low-risk activity. It simply means there are less challenges and fewer time delays in trying to move things forward.

From the perspective of aquaculture stakeholders, it's strongly felt that we have made progress since 2012. We'd be reluctant to work backwards and become more restrictive in terms of processes, where, as mentioned, shellfish aquaculture is fundamentally a low risk to habitat and the environment to begin with.

I would also like to share one thing. From the aquaculture side of things, we're dealing with the Fisheries Act. I'm on the board of directors for CAIA, which is the Canadian Aquaculture Industry Alliance. They've been advocating for many years for the development of an aquaculture act. I just want to share a bit of a good news story on P.E.I., in that we have been able to collaborate with the provincial government and DFO to work through some of the challenges in lieu of an aquaculture act. We have developed a committee, which has several of my board members and me on it, and the provincial department of fisheries and DFO, to talk about interim measures to address some of the regulatory challenges of the oyster aquaculture industry.

Basically, we've developed a system where growers have an option to apply for an annual introductions and transfers permit, or licence, that will give them permission to conduct off-lease maintenance activities and lease-to-lease transfers. This licence will reduce the current administrative burden on the government side and allow industry to work in a way that makes sense and whatnot. When I say that, it's a great collaboration that we've done on P.E.I. to help the industry move forward, basically in the absence of an aquaculture act.

I want to close by saying that the P.E.I. aquaculture industry recognizes the interdependency between a vibrant, sustainable shellfish aquaculture industry and the health of the marine environment. The industry believes that shellfish aquaculture can be undertaken in harmony with the environment, and that the sustainable use of the marine environment is a shared responsibility requiring a climate of co-operation among all resource users and regulatory authorities.

Thank you.

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