Fisheries committee  I want to thank the chairman, Gerald Keddy, and Mr. Blais, who is replacing Mr. Keddy. Gentlemen, honourable members of the Bloc Québécois, the NDP and the Liberal Party, we want to sincerely thank you for inviting us to appear before this prestigious committee to express the co

Fisheries committee  Moreover, the minister made a commitment to review the costs in various sectors of the industry and to make them fairer. I am talking about licences, and so on. Finally, Minister Hearn increased the capital gains exemption which was $250,000 under the Liberals to $750,000, which

Fisheries committee  Yes, may I put it here?

Fisheries committee  Okay. I will shorten my remarks and go directly to the request for an inquiry. If we look at the Maritime Fishermen's Union approach to fishers, namely inshore fishers, we note that they have set up several companies. I have some of the companies names here, and I will give them

Fisheries committee  I will give you a petition. All categories of fishers are calling for this inquiry. The Île Miscou lobster fishers association is one of them. It is true that we don't have the support of the four other traditional crabbers associations, but there again, we must be very careful.

Fisheries committee  Okay. Thank you, Mr. Simms. That will enable me to tell you about the need for a public enquiry at DFO Moncton.

Fisheries committee  Yes.

Fisheries committee  The inshore fishers. The MFU charges each inshore fisher $300 for a medical insurance plan. But that is absolutely not part of its mandate. A very high percentage of inshore fishers are opposed to that.

Fisheries committee  People wonder where the money is going. It is $300. Does it really cost that much? No one gets a direct answer. Apparently, the money is put into an account. Where is the money held? I have discovered that it is in some of the companies that belong to the MFU and the DFO looks af

Fisheries committee  No, we only received it last week.

Fisheries committee  It would be exclusive to the traditional crabbers until 2010.

Fisheries committee  It's because of the decline of the snow crab.

Fisheries committee  DFO replied that the plan for the fishery had not determined that. In other words that 15 or 16% of the quota went to inshore fishers. Did it not, sir? They are two crabbers.

Fisheries committee  We would like to know if the quantity of crab is really decreasing or if the stock is maintaining itself, etc. But we never get any answers. At present, we only know one thing: for 2008, 2009 and 2010, scientists and biologists are saying that quotas should decrease by 20%. If th

Fisheries committee  The minister has asked us to respond by October.