Best Wishes for 2014

As the year comes to a close, we would like to wish you and your family a happy holiday season. This joyful time gives us an opportunity to look back and take stock of our progress in the last year.

2013 was a year full of accomplishments for our organizations. The Canadian Coast Guard successfully continued to implement the restructuring of its organization, launched at the national level in 2012. Here, this restructuring meant establishing the new Central and Arctic Region, which unites the former Quebec and Central and Arctic regions into one vast region, with all the inherent challenges of such an undertaking.

Fisheries and Oceans Canada has continued its collaborative efforts and has maintained partnerships established with many of you to strengthen the economic prosperity of the maritime and fisheries sectors, the sustainability of aquatic ecosystems, and the safety and security of navigable waters. A few examples include the Department's close collaboration in the process for certifying the Magdalen Islands lobster fishery as sustainable, as well as in the establishment of voluntary measures to reduce the speed of commercial and cruise ships in certain areas of the St. Lawrence Estuary to reduce the risk of collisions with marine mammals.

On behalf of all Fisheries and Oceans Canada and Canadian Coast Guard employees in Quebec, we would like to wish you and yours health and happiness in the new year.

Richard Nadeau and Mario Pelletier

Fisheries and Oceans Canada and Canadian Coast Guard