First, we have to recognize that DFO, with the new Fisheries Act, is going to have a tremendous burden on itself to write a lot of the new regulations under the new act. It will require resources within the department to hold the consultations that are required for that. It will require the support of the centre of government with justice lawyers to draft the regulations.
We'd like to see some specific regulations addressed while they're working on that, and to give a specific example: export certificates. Our companies have to request an export certificate. It takes five days to get the certificate. CFIA does not inspect in order to provide the export certificate, so it's just a delay. Our facilities are already approved through CFIA, through a HACCP program, and other measures, so that's just slowing things down. For an export-oriented economy that should be something that should be easily fixed.
With respect to LED lighting on fishing gear, other countries use this new technology to either repel unwanted species, to avoid bycatch, or to attract the target species. We're not allowed to do that. Some marking of gear, or even retrieval of lost gear, is not allowed under certain circumstances. That situation seems to be a little perverse.
Little things like that are preventing us from innovating and becoming more competitive. Those are just some simple ones.