Attention News Editors: Our Executive Director, Lois Corbett, issued the following statement with regards to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s cabinet shuffle today:
“We congratulate the Hon. Dominic LeBlanc (MP — Beauséjour) as he moves from Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard to Minister of Intergovernmental and Northern Affairs.
We applaud and thank Minister LeBlanc for his leadership in developing a new, improved Fisheries Act that restores and strengthens protections for fish, fish habitat, and the important sustainable jobs in our coastal communities.
Under Minister LeBlanc’s guidance and through consultation with groups like the Conservation Council, the new act is smart, science-based, and restores many of the critical protections that were lost when it was gutted in 2012.
We also commend Minister LeBlanc’s swift and comprehensive actions to protect the North Atlantic right whale in the wake of unprecedented deaths of the critically-endangered species in Canadian waters last summer.
We welcome and congratulate the Hon. Jonathan Wilkinson (MP — North Vancouver) upon his appointment as Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard.
We will rely on Minister Wilkinson to carry on the important work underway in many Fisheries files, including:
- overseeing the implementation of the new Fisheries Act, currently before the Senate;
- acting upon the recommendations in Canada’s Environment Commissioner’s 2018 Spring Report on the federal government’s ongoing failure to effectively regulate and enforce aquaculture operations in Atlantic Canada and the west coast.
- continuing efforts to restore and protect the endangered North Atlantic right whale
- leading the effort to protect Canada’s productive marine waters by creating new Marine Protected Areas and other measures in the government’s $1.5-billion Oceans Protection Plan
- responding to the worldwide movement against plastic pollution in our oceans by working with colleagues in Environment Canada on a national plastic waste strategy.
We look forward to working with Minister Wilkinson on delivering the comprehensive protections and critical habitat restorations that Canadians expect for our marine waters and coastal communities.”
To arrange an interview, contact:
Jon MacNeill, Communications Director | 458-8747 (W) | 238-3539 (m) jon.macneill@conservationcouncil.ca