Fisheries committee  If you look at the MOU--which I will be giving to you--you'll see that we didn't give it away. If you look at the Heiltsuk, we didn't give it away; DFO did.

Fisheries committee  No, I know, but what I'm getting back to you is that we have sat down with Heiltsuk, for many years, talking about what is beneficial to everybody. But if they can go to DFO and say “We want more,” they get it.

Fisheries committee  --the spawning and roe-on-kelp starts basically in San Francisco and just keeps moving all the way up until you're up to Bristol Bay, Alaska. What happens is that when you hit the central coast of British Columbia, with 40% to 50% of the total production of roe-on-kelp, as soon

Fisheries committee  The total market for North America is 1,000 tonnes.

Fisheries committee  No, but what I'm getting at is that we produce about 600 of it, and there's a market for that. What happens is that with Heiltsuk's increases every year, we're into around 800. That is the problem. When you read this agreement, you'll see that this is not a one-year agreement.

Fisheries committee  Yes, but it's not stopping. That's why we're here.

Fisheries committee  The point of all this is that we can't afford to go out there because of the cost of production. They don't pay a licence fee. We have a licence fee. I mean, it just goes on and on. It's not an even playing field. We know what the market is. We know what the market can take. The

Fisheries committee  You have to have a balance between the enforcement and science, and we don't have that in the Pacific. The problem we're having is that we don't know how much the stocks are. I'll give you an example. The north-coast salmon has a wide-open fishery, and the south-coast salmon has

Fisheries committee  In the 2006 MOU, number seven says: The parties are desirous of conducting an orderly and peaceful herring spawn-on-kelp and roe fishery that respects the parties' responsibilities and interests. Then they turn around and start giving stuff away. That's right in their deal.

Fisheries committee  I think what you would have to do is an evaluation of just where we're going and what is happening. That's what I think. I don't know what the value is. It's probably not as much as everybody thinks. But in the same sense, the department is part of the reason why they have no v

Fisheries committee  Can I interject something?

Fisheries committee  I would to like to interject that in February of this year a memorandum of understanding was done, between DFO and Heiltsuk, adding 92,000 pounds, which took in the 332,000 pounds. At the same time that DFO did that, they sent us an election for zero-quota option for 2006 spawn-o

Fisheries committee  With our licence application.

Fisheries committee  We got an election form for a zero-quota option.

Fisheries committee  Right, without paying a fee.