I'll speak to the motion for a moment.
As I noted in my questions to Mr. Bevan and the delegation from the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans, all sides at home in Newfoundland and Labrador, from the processors, the fish plant operator, the Fish, Food and Allied Workers union to the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador have come out and said that they are in agreement with this deal.
There are definite positives and they're undeniable. The fact that these tariffs are being lifted is something which the industry has called for, for decades. The positives are undeniable. but the negatives are also there, especially when you hear the media play, again out of the European Union, where they're lauding this deal, saying that it's going to give EU countries and processors access to Canadian fish. When we hear that kind of media play coming out of the EU, that causes real concern. It also causes us concern, as I asked you a few moments ago, in terms of the $280 million, and the fact that the federal department responsible for the harvesting, for our fishing industry, is not aware of what the $280 million will be spent on. I find that unusual.
There's no doubt that the lifting of minimum processing requirements has been in place—again, it's provincial legislation—in Newfoundland and Labrador for years. The lifting of those minimum processing requirements will have an impact on the processing sector, but what's not clear is what the impact will be. How many jobs will be lost? Will processing jobs be lost? The answer to that seems to be yes. The number of jobs is not known and nobody seems to be able to answer that.
The point has been made that the processing sector falls within provincial jurisdiction, and it does, but the lifting of minimum processing requirements is a result of this federal trade deal. From my perspective, this may be provincial jurisdiction, but again, the federal government has a role in this.
I'm speaking from the perspective of someone who's been involved in covering the fishing industry for the better part of 20 years. It's been 21 years now since we had a moratorium on northern cod. For the first time in 500 years, back in 1992, we saw the shutdown of our fishing industry. It's now 21 years after—