Good day.
I wasn't aware of this committee until late Friday. I see that the next place you are going to sit in Quebec is in the Maggies, and for me to go to the Maggies is $3,000, plus a four-day trip. So I will try to do some kind of presentation now.
I've been sitting on the Quebec and Newfoundland and Magdalen and P.E.I. committee, that sharing committee--quota committee, sharing committee. Before last year there were no original shares, but late last year--let's say two weeks before the hunt--the minister decided to give regional shares. As we see, we're four to five months from the next hunt and we still don't have this issue solved. What's going to happen next year?
We were supposed to discuss it through the winter. I see this year even the seal forum is not until late January or February. It's a late date to have a forum just before a hunt. We have many issues. As other people said here today, we have the hakapik issue, the small-boat registry, and some people talk about EI. There is EI there in the Maggies; seal is insurable. On the upper north shore of Quebec, seal is insurable. They found a way to get around it. We're trying on the lower north shore, like the province of Newfoundland, to get it insurable. The same office that represents me in Sept-Îles represents the upper north shore. They found a solution for them...I think it's 50% of the seal earning is insurable, the other 50% is not.
These are all issues that we have to discuss together. What I find is that we discuss the fishery just prior to the fishery opening, and then everybody is in a rush to go either fishing, hunting, or things like that. Can we discuss the fishery maybe a month or two months after the fishery is over, to see what the problem is? We had a problem with the overrun of quotas last year. I know in my area, if the cellphone doesn't work I don't have a cellphone, so I have to get a cellphone from Newfoundland. But I can't call the 800 number in Quebec because they don't accept the 709 area. So I can't register my seal.
I call the coast guard, but the coast guard can't call Fisheries and Oceans to give them my number, so there were overruns maybe in my quota last year. Who is to blame? Maybe the fishermen, maybe the system. I live in Quebec. I have a minority English-speaking area and the answering machine is only in French. So when I have 20 questions to answer...the questions are too long. What is your boat number? How many crew members? What date did you want? This message should be read every day, so if you read a message every day, do I have to report which date? That is one question you could take off.
Last year we had a weekend hunt, so who keeps track of what happens on weekends, the answering machine? In my area there is an 8,000 seal quota, 400 hunters, and the machine can take maybe 20 messages. So what happens to the rest?
These are all things that I think we should discuss, maybe, after the hunt and try to solve it through the forum. Last year, for the regional share that we tried to do to solve a later opening date, as Mr. Genge was saying, the big problem we had in the the gulf all along was that the Maggies want the opening date on March 28 and we in Newfoundland want it on April 8. That was the issue. Last year we got a regional share and the Maggies opened, maybe March 30, which may still be too early. But with regional shares, at least we went ahead with something. We had less raggedy jack killed last year in the hunt. The price was better.
I think the more time goes by, the more the Maggies will realize that if they go at a later date, they'll get a better price.
The only way to solve it is the regional share. Boat quotas would be the ideal situation. I have 200 core fishermen in my area, and there are maybe 600 sealers licences. Everybody over the age of 14 or 15 has a seal licence. Wives have licences too.
How do we deal with the seal licence? Do we freeze this licence? If I'm 90 years old and I die tomorrow morning, and my kids want my licence, I have no way to transfer the licence. Now we have a freeze on the licence, but what happens? Is it only the dire situation that...? This is the fishery with the least consistent rules. You can't find a good rule to follow. We all live in Canada, and we all should have the same rules, all of Canada.
People are talking about small boats and big boats. I represent both groups. In our area there is no small-boat quota and there is no big-boat quota. The problem we're having is that when a hunter goes around in what's called a big boat, but he goes around with four outboards, is he hunting from the big boat or is he hunting from the small boat? That's what we're having to solve. If you're hunting from a big boat, and your boat is 65 feet, don't put an 18-foot boat aboard. Are you a hunting boat or a collecting boat?
On this issue, it might take a year to discuss it, but we have to sit down and decide: do my four small boats have the same number as my big boat? All the crew members are aboard this boat, because I can have four permanent sealers aboard my boat with one guy who registers. The day the hunt is finished, the other three can take me aboard his small boat. I can take all the hunt myself, 8,000 seals on the lower north shore. If I have a good boat, I can take 8,000 seals myself.
Thank you.