The swearing in of a new Canadian Prime Minister in December had all the appearance of an orderly succession – one Liberal to another – but it brought a new Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) Minister, Geoff Regan, a Member of Parliament whose riding (district) is Halifax West in Nova Scotia.
Regan has not yet laid out a new course for DFO. His spokesman, Brian Underhill, said it would probably be some time before Regan does so. “First and foremost, the Minister wants to meet people in the regions from the Atlantic to the Pacific,” Underhill said.
Wayne Easter, an M.P. from Malpeque, Prince Edward Island and Solicitor General in the former Chretien government, does have some definite ideas about the future of the DFO, however.
Easter, also a former member of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans, says he’d like to see a large number of DFO operations moved out of Ottawa and into the regions.
“You’ve probably heard as much, as I have complaints from fishermen that bureaucrats in Ottawa don’t know the fisheries and don’t understand the problems facing fishermen,” Easter said.
Citing new Prime Minister Paul Martin’s call for new directions, Easter said, “The Prime Minister has promised to put more decision making in the hands of the standing committees, and in May 2003 the Fisheries Committee produced a report calling for fewer personnel in Ottawa and more in the regions.”
Regan spokesman Underhill said that “the Minister intends to give this serious attention in the context of his review of fisheries policy management. If there’s a better way to do things, the Minister will give it every consideration. I would point out, though, that decisions are made in Ottawa; that’s where the department is.”
Regan is serving his second term in the House of Commons. He is Parliamentary Secretary to the Government House Leader, and he sits on the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs, as well as the Subcommittee on National Security.
Also named to the Martin Cabinet was John Efford, M.P. for the Bonavista-Trinity-Conception riding in Newfoundland and former provincial Fisheries and Aquaculture Minister, who is the new Natural Resources Minister.