I think we're mortgaging our future with the current proposed changes. If I can just quote Jeffrey Hutchings—he's the former chair of the federal government committee on the status of endangered wildlife in Canada. In a recent letter to the Prime Minister, he asserts that the majority of freshwater fish, and up to 80% of 71 freshwater species at risk of extinction, will not be protected with the changes that are before us today. That, in my opinion, is a catastrophe. I don't think these fish will fall under the definition of commercial fish. I don't think they will fall under recreational fish. It's fairly unlikely they fall under aboriginal fisheries.
At the moment, in the Standing committee on Fisheries and Oceans we are looking at how ecosystems can change overnight. Over 10 years, the Great Lakes ecosystem has changed, where a fish that was considered inconsequential is now considered crucial to the food chain of the fish that are currently being harvested. Changes are happening very quickly, especially in the situation of climate change we have today. I don't think the changes being proposed are going to be able to adequately address that. I'm worried that biodiversity is going to be seriously affected. I always understood from childhood that the big fish eats the little fish. You protect all fish, because it's all part of one chain. This bill does not address that, not adequately in the least.
I'm wondering, would you be able to speak to biodiversity? How is that going to be protected, and should we even bother protecting biodiversity?