The department sits on a bilateral committee — federal and provincial — on protected marine areas that Environment Canada and Parks Canada and three provincial government departments also sit on it. The objective of the committee is to designate marine areas of interest and make progress on things in that regard.
Recently, the American Bank and another marine area, in the Îles-de-la-Madeleine, were designated through that process. There is a third, but I have unfortunately forgotten what it is. The governments divide up the work of determining what the best mechanisms or legislative tools are for protecting the marine space. There is also the Saguenay–St. Lawrence Marine Park, which is managed jointly by the Société des établissements de plein air du Québec and Parks Canada. This marine area is considered to be of interest for protecting the beluga, a species that is now at risk. The possibility of this park being used to protect that species' habitat is being studied.
So we are working with those departments and with interest groups, environmental groups and the fishing industry. That collaboration, which is becoming increasingly official, has been in place for 25 years and is improving every year.