Fisheries committee  Sure, thank you. I'll go as quickly as I can. Some seafood companies will buy our product in Canada, and then they will ship it to, say, Toronto and hold it there for a few days before ultimately shipping it to an Asian destination. In that intermediate time, they can mix our product—and I think they have—with black market elvers.

Fisheries committee  Thank you, Mr. Kelloway. What I would like to say to the minister and yourself, Mr. Kelloway, again, is that you can't take what the region tells you as fact. I've listened to many of your TV and radio interviews. To tell you that it was partly disinformation fed—through no fault of your own—by DFO would be a fact.

Fisheries committee  That's it so far, yes, but that's more than I got last year out of 30.

Fisheries committee  Yes, sir. We put out our trail cameras two days ago, and instantly we got pictures of people poaching elvers. There are still more to come out. For the two days we've had them out, both days I've sent emails to a long list of people to report that.

Fisheries committee  The first day I got a one-word email back that said “Received”.

Fisheries committee  That's a very good question. What could we tell you that you could bring to the minister? This has been a 10-year problem. I can tell you that over and over again. The mismanagement of this fishery is nothing short of criminal. What I would like to tell this minister, the past minister and the minister before that is that they cannot blindly take the advice of the regional bureaucrats and take it as an honest assessment of the situation.

Fisheries committee  Sure. Thank you for the question. We've been requesting for a long time, and we've always been proponents of, greater indigenous access in the fishery—for many, many years. We realized the easiest way to implement something like this, which may actually help the fishery as a whole, is to be in the same room as first nations leaders, especially the ones who would like to co-operate with DFO.

Fisheries committee  DFO has essentially pitted our two camps against each other, when we're basically on the same side. We're all fishermen. We all want to make a living from this resource. We all want to pay tax. We all want to create jobs for our communities. Instead of bringing us together under one umbrella, DFO has separated us, and that causes animosity.

Fisheries committee  I think that solution will help CBSA. We found that last year, CBSA seized zero kilograms of elvers, despite DFO telling us that they were working very closely with CBSA. We saw testimony at this committee that refuted that fact. We contacted the CBSA ourselves—the director general.

Fisheries committee  I think you're absolutely right. We are willing to fish and take care of our own security. We're willing to adopt any suggestions from CBSA or DFO to ensure that poached and black market eels are not leaving the country. I think it's cruel to take 1,100 jobs from 1,100 families in one of the worst economies we've seen in decades.

Fisheries committee  If I were the deputy minister today, I would say, “Minister, you need to meet with industry. They've put forward a concrete plan to improve the safety, traceability and overall conditions of the fishery. You need to do that within the next two weeks, because the fishery can still be saved.

Fisheries committee  Thank you for your question. It's not being considered, because nobody will listen to our plan. The minister will not listen to our plan. We forwarded it. We don't think there was a genuine consultation period. We've repeatedly asked to meet with the minister. We think it's easier for the government to wash its hands of this industry for this year and just get by it and hope for next year.

Fisheries committee  We were upset that the season closed after 18 days and there was no effort to curb poaching. For the first 31 days after the closure, when nobody should have been on the river, I emailed 30 times over 31 days to report poaching every night on six rivers concurrently. I received no emails back.

Fisheries committee  We caught them in the day one time. It was the day of the closure. They went and put signs on the trees. That was the only time we saw them.

Fisheries committee  I would be very happy to table it for the committee. I've tabled it for many politicians already. I usually just give the last one, because I always number them and so forth: This is the 30th report in 31 days.