Commercial Groundfish Integrated Advisory Committee (CGIAC)

For many years, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) has been under pressure to resolve by-catch issues for all commercial groundfish fleets. These pressures have come from the Canadian public, the Species at Risk Act, and from the international community that has made commitments to reduce by-catch worldwide. 

In addition to by-catch, the DFO also has concerns regarding rockfish species, and, in 2002, an Inshore Rockfish Conservation Strategy was established with initial measures introduced for both commercial and recreational fisheries. 

During the first half of 2003, the DFO hosted meetings of industry, environmental and provincial representatives from the British Columbia Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Fisheries (MAFF) to discuss the future management of the BC groundfish industry. These meetings generated a discussion paper titled, “Future Directions of the Commercial Groundfish Fisheries in British Columbia”. This paper prepared participants for the next series of meeting known as “The Commercial Groundfish Initiative”. Under this initiative, in October 2003, two committees were created to establish a strategic approach for the future direction of the commercial groundfish industry: the CIC and the CGIAC. 

The Commercial Groundfish Integrated Advisory Committee (CGIAC) is an overarching committee dealing with cross-sector groundfish policy matters. Its membership includes representatives from the commercial fishery and processors as well as other stakeholders such as DFO, MAFF, Coastal Communities, Marine Conservation Caucus, Sports Fish Advisory Board and the BC Aboriginal Fisheries Commission. Although they were invited to sit at the CGIAC table, the Marine Conservation Caucus chose, after an initial planning session, not to continue to participate at the table, preferring to send occasional observers. 

The CGIAC has met occasionally since February 2004 to examine and provide input into the integration proposals of the CIC from the perspective of other groundfish stakeholder groups. The CIC is a working group of the CGIAC.