Mr. Chairman, I want to first assure my colleague Mr. Stoffer that I'll be exercising the precautionary principle when I make my statements, because I think, as the minister is finding out today, sometimes statements that are made in this seat might come back to bite you when you sit in that seat.
Not that I would ever, Mr. Minister, want to sit in that seat. I've lived a clean life and a good life, and have done nothing to deserve that. Okay?
That said, I think what the minister is seeing, though, is it's waxing strange on members of this committee who have been here for a number of years, in some of the positions that were taken by the minister when he did sit in this seat. I look specifically at his position on the bottom dragging and the fact that his position on that may be not vicious but certainly aggressive.
I don't think the reality has changed much. You made reference to Mr. Byrne's riding and Mr. Matthews' riding. I think the situation was very similar when it was referred to that the bottom dragging was decimating the bottom floor.
Or even with NAFO and the new-found embrace with NAFO, or the enlightenment, whatever it might be, I know the previous minister embarked on a number of changes, a study and wanting to move forward with a number of changes, and this minister has embraced those changes, but I know the comment was that it was a toothless straw dog that Canada really should not be committed to.
I like the minister a great deal, and I still believe that some positions that were advanced while he was in this seat are still important to the minister, as they are to members around this committee. So I want to look specifically at one issue, and that issue is about fish plants and older fish plant workers.
When we're looking at some of the discrepancies that we've tried to identify, that have been identified around the table today, and new programs and new moneys, is there within these new programs or new moneys a strategy that is set? We understand fully the changes in the fish plant industry. Is there a strategy to deal with further impacts, perhaps closures? Specifically, is there something within that new strategy for older workers?
Is that five minutes? That's about three minutes.