🍁 civid v1

Status

• Bill C-237 received first reading on September 22, 2025. It would amend the Fisheries Act and require the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans to develop a monitoring system.

Recreational groundfish fisheries

• The bill would add the importance of stability and predictability for recreational groundfish fishers to the matters addressed in section 2.5 of the Act.
• Regulations would have to harmonize close times across Atlantic provinces in Canadian Atlantic fisheries waters used for recreational groundfish fishing. A close time for a species could be set only in relation to that species’ spawning period.

Publication and reporting

• Close times and fishing quotas fixed or varied under the specified regulations or variation orders would have to be published on the Department of Fisheries and Oceans website at least two months before they take effect.
• The minister would have to prepare an annual report on administration and enforcement of the Act and have it tabled in both Houses of Parliament as soon as feasible after each fiscal year.
• The bill would add daily and open-season catch totals to the matters for which certain people may be required to provide information or keep records.

Monitoring system

• Within one year after the bill comes into force, the minister would have to develop, in consultation with key stakeholders, a system to record catches by species, number, time and place.
• In developing it, the minister would have to consider existing Canadian models and best practices, examine whether fees and penalties under the Act could cover administrative costs, and identify incentives for timely reporting, such as reduced fees.