By: Matt Weingarden, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Tilbury Times Reporter
Chatham-Kent–Leamington MP Dave Epp has welcomed the recent decision to transfer the Great Lakes Fishery Commission (GLFC) management from Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) to Global Affairs Canada.
The Great Lakes Fishery Commission, an international organization formed by the United States and Canada under the 1954 Convention on Great Lakes Fisheries, was created to address the need for coordinated efforts between the two countries in managing their shared fishery resources. In the mid-20th century, the Great Lakes fishery was on the brink of collapse. Before the commission’s establishment, the fishery was facing severe depletion.
“After years of pressure, Common Sense Conservative members of the Fisheries Committee have forced the Trudeau Liberal government to transfer management of the Great Lakes Fishery Commission (GLFC) from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) to the Foreign Affairs Ministry,”” Epp stated.
Although there is no binding centralized authority enforcing cooperative fishery management on the Great Lakes, past missteps from insufficient interstate and binational coordination have led the regions to understand that the fishery is profoundly interconnected and that each jurisdiction’sjurisdiction’s actions have direct impacts on the others.
According to Epp, “The official request to transfer the Machinery of Government (MOG) function from the DFO to the Department of Foreign Affairs sat on the Prime Minister’sMinister’s desk since April 2022. Like always, the Trudeau Government pushed our fisheries aside and sat on their hands for over 2 years doing nothing despite the repeated recommendations from the Fisheries and Oceans Committee and the Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development. In addition, the views, and perspectives of stakeholders, including the staff and Board of Directors of the Great Lakes Fisheries Commission, itself, from both sides of the border, were long ignored.”
Epp emphasized the significance of a March 22, 2024 report from the House of Commons Fisheries Committee, titled “Restoring Full Accountability for Resources and Governance of the Great Lakes Fishery Commission,” which recommended the shift in governance.
“Restoring accountability and management to GLFC means that the structural conflict of interest that has existed with DFO as both the ”Contractor,” and simultaneously, the ”contractee” with respect to its role as the MOG provider, while being contracted by the GLFC to provide sea lamprey mitigation services has finally been removed,” he noted.
Epp added, “Common Sense Conservatives will continue to be a strong voice for our fisheries and waterways after Trudeau and his six failed Fisheries Ministers have made a mess of things after nine years of inaction, mismanagement, and failure.”
The Commission’s primary responsibilities include building collaborative relationships among various entities such as state agencies, U.S. tribal organizations, Ontario resource management agencies, Indigenous communities, federal departments, stakeholders, and research institutions. Another key role is managing the invasive sea lamprey, an ancient species from the Atlantic Ocean that entered the Great Lakes in the mid-1900s, causing severe ecological and economic damage. Additionally, the Commission actively supports research initiatives to enhance regional fisheries management.
