It's a pretty good question, Mr. Chair.
In fact, I've visited P.E.I. several times since I've been minister. I would say I've met with representatives of all sectors of the fishery. I toured a lot of the fishing enterprises, looked at a lot of the small craft harbours in the area, and visited plants.
One thing that's evident in P.E.I., which is the same in Newfoundland and certainly in Quebec, is that we have areas in the province where people who are dependent on the fishery are having a rough time. We also have areas in P.E.I., like the north side, as you know, where they've done very well and are doing very well.
When there is a problem in the industry, we always go back to the old saying by Parzival Copes years ago of too many fishermen chasing too few fish. That again might be true.
We have three options, Mr. Chair. One, we can take more people out to suit a dwindling resource. The second thing we can do is deal with the dwindling resource to see why it is dwindling and try to improve the resource to suit the numbers of people who are trying to make a living. The third is to let others get involved in doing just that, and it's what we've been doing.
It's why we had a major meeting in P.E.I. to deal with the Northumberland Strait, where most of the problems are occurring, for all kinds of reasons. We brought in the other provinces that are directly involved to collectively put our heads together, as we're doing in Newfoundland and as we are now doing in Quebec, getting the people who are directly involved to come up with some of the solutions.
Is government going to solve all the problems with government programs or buyouts? We tried that before. It didn't work, and industry and the people involved will tell you that. A lot of the solutions have to come from the people involved. It will be a consolidation and a cooperation that is coordinated with government leadership and help. There's no doubt about it; we are going to have to be involved.