I think there will be stress on it unless something is done. Both levels of government in Newfoundland and Labrador today are in confrontation with harvesters, and these are some of the things that are coming out. Our provincial government abandoned our loan policy, and that throws you at the mercy of the banks; and of course, you eventually end up at the mercy of the processors.
I think it has been suggested many times in meetings I've been in that the feds or provincial governments should get back into some kind of loan policy and set up funding. If you're going to allow a combination, set up the funding, not grants. What we are asking for are loans that we would have to repay.
I think the other suggestion to that is that they would have to take a percentage of the fish to pay off that vessel. In other words, if they give me a million pounds of fish to catch and lend me $2 million, and then next year DFO mismanages the fishery and I have only $500,000, then they only get half the money. If they're going to put the money there, they have to put their money where their mouth is.
The two things have to go together: the amount of fish that you can catch and the value you're going to get for it, and the cost of your loan. You can't go and borrow a couple of million dollars, and next year they pull the rug out from under you and give you no income. No business is going to operate like that. You're going tits up.
So yes, there will be stress unless two levels of government get involved financially and put a plan in place that will make it work.