Fisheries committee  Halifax.

Fisheries committee  Perhaps, Mr. Chair, I'll take a moment to address the three issues. In terms of the trend in the fishing industry, the demand for credit in the fishing industry has been slower than the demand for credit in other industries. My business loans are up 9.7% year over year. Our growth in our fishing industry exposure would be less, but that would primarily reflect demand.

Fisheries committee  I'd like to comment. Some of my clients are certainly more challenged today than they were before. Our risk rating for the industry remains unchanged, but certainly some of our clients are more challenged, so we're working more closely with them than we would have in the past.

Fisheries committee  I could certainly get you that specific data. My guess would be that somewhere between 5% to 6% of our loan portfolio would be related to the fishery.

Fisheries committee  No, I'm speaking just on behalf of Atlantic Canada. I don't have those numbers. But I can get them for you, if it's important.

Fisheries committee  Yes.

Fisheries committee  I'll take a stab at that. I would say that wouldn't be widespread. You reference the fact that he was 25 years old. Typically, we would be looking at his experience as a captain. If he had very limited experience as a captain and was mainly just a boat hand, then obviously that would represent a riskier venture for us.

Fisheries committee  I'll speak to that. We would view the risk associated with each of those two components of the lobster fishery as different. Typically, most of us would view the pounders or the processors as probably representing somewhat higher risk because they have market price risk. They don't know what they'll be able to sell their product for, but they have already purchased it.

Fisheries committee  I was not in attendance at the meeting, but there were representatives from the Royal Bank. I know Craig and Paul were there, so if you're comfortable, perhaps they could address that.

Fisheries committee  From my perspective, it hasn't. I think this past winter we saw a number of the lobster pounders cautious about purchasing as much volume as they typically would have because of concerns around where the price might be in international markets and where exchange rates might be. So I think some of the lobster pounders were cautious around purchasing, and that had some impact on the lobster fishers, but in terms of accessing capital from us, there was no change.

Fisheries committee  I think the reason would relate to the fact that a licence is more of an intangible asset. Its value has less certainty at some point in the future than perhaps a boat may have. The Saulnier decision, as I understand this, recognized the right of the bank to have an independent trustee in bankruptcy realize on that asset and to sell it and to apply the proceeds to whoever had a registered charge on that.

Fisheries committee  Well, it's provided some clarity to the situation, which had largely been untested up until then.

Fisheries committee  The other piece that came out of it, which has been helpful, is that the Department of Fisheries and Oceans has agreed to take note of when there has been a loan granted against a licence and to record that in their records, so that at least for the benefit of any subsequent transfers of licence, they are aware that there is a registered charge.

Fisheries committee  I would suggest that some of the comments might relate to some of the challenges they've had from a cashflow perspective. If a fisher was looking to acquire a new licence and acquire a new boat, that might have some impact on it. I can assure you our policies haven't changed, so to the extent that five years ago, if somebody wanted to purchase a vessel and licence, we would lend 75% over those repayment terms, those would still be the terms and conditions today.

Fisheries committee  Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for allowing Royal Bank of Canada to contribute to the discussion on the lobster fishery and access to credit. My name is Peter Conrod, and I've been an executive officer with Royal Bank for six years. As regional vice-president of commercial financial services in the Atlantic region, I hold responsibility for our commercial business in Atlantic Canada and lead a team of 114 people dedicated to serving our commercial business clients.