In order to stop overfishing in international waters, we said that we need cooperation. We always said there were other countries that believed the same as we did, if somebody had the leadership and coordination to do it.
On the efforts by our people, when I say “our people”, I mean it's the people from our province who were at NAFO, our officials who were at NAFO, and our own political people who were at NAFO this year. We spent weeks, from the first day I became minister until the NAFO meeting, planning how we would turn around NAFO. We did, and I won't get into the spirit of NAFO. People think they were insignificant changes, but look at what's there and look at what happens on the first of January.
We carried it further, Mr. Chair.
We took all kinds of flack from environmental groups, during the last couple of months, about Canada's stand on bottom trawling. It's the same stand the former government had, because we realized that dealing with one little aspect of technology doesn't do anything, particularly when what people want you to do is completely unenforceable.
We were looking at a major sustainable fisheries resolution that solidified the gains we had made at NAFO. By taking the middle-of-the-road position, with the help of some others, including Australia, we brought those polarized around one little paragraph in an 80-paragraph resolution to the centre point. We now have a major sustainable fisheries resolution going to the UN that is supported by the 100-plus countries and commits to deal with the very things for which we have been asking for years.
Have we made a major headway in dealing with overfishing, misreporting, and all the other activities, and in dealing with those who step outside the line? Yes, Mr. Chair, we certainly have.
How do we know? Well, the proof of the pudding is in the eating. I think we'll very shortly see some of that.