Thank you, Mr. Chair.
On April 2, the Trudeau government released guidance on its essential services and functions in Canada during the COVID-19 pandemic.
I joined our fish and seafood sectors in welcoming the federal government's acknowledgement of the essential role these sectors can play in supporting Canada's food security. One of the challenges our sector is facing is with retooling processing and logistics to provide essential support for Canada's food supply.
Another target of the government is the $62.5-million Canadian seafood stabilization fund for processors for adding storage capacity for unsold product. This suggested to me that the freezer storage on the Atlantic coast was maxed out. Another month before the announcement of the fund, it was reported that an estimated three million pounds of lobster was stranded in storage.
If the purpose of your sector being deemed essential was to allow you to support food security, I assumed that would mean Canadian fish and seafood would be made more available to Canadians, but now the government is funding storage so the stockpiles can be made even bigger.
Have any of you received an explanation from the government as to why they have not taken any action to promote or do more promotion of Canadian fish and seafood for Canadian dinner plates?
Does anyone want to take that one on?