I am well aware of Mr. Blais' interest in the small craft harbours program from being on the committee with him. Certainly from every meeting I attended, whether we're talking about small craft harbours, whether we're talking about fish generally, or whether we're talking about chicken farming, Mr. Blais will bring in the wharf, as he should, because he represents a fishing area.
In relation to Quebec, I would say to him that the meetings were set up in Quebec by the minister of fisheries from Quebec. He did a tremendous job, Mr. Chair, and we had a great meeting.
The meeting was not set up for me or for the provincial minister to go and give out a pile of information to solve all the problems. The meeting was called so that industry, everybody involved, would come to discuss openly the concern, the challenges that we have to face, and to go forward so we would have input into what needs to be done to outlying areas where expenditure will be needed, to outlying areas where we can consolidate, where we can improve, where we can collectively come up with an ocean-to-plate strategy. So it wasn't the time to go in to make any announcements.
Let me say in relation to the funding—and I might come back to Mr. Cuzner's answer—we are well aware, and nobody is more aware than I am, of the need for investment in small craft harbours. We are, like every other department, working on putting our requests forward for funding. Are we going to consider looking for more money for small craft harbours? Absolutely. Yes, we are. Will we get it? We're quite confident that we'll get more money; we have to. We can talk about the fishery, we can talk about the market, we can talk about harvesting, we can talk about processing, but you're not going to get out to catch a fish if you don't a wharf to leave from. So we have to be sensible there.
Consequently, Mr. Chair, yes, we are not at all forgetting the fact that the small craft harbours program is an important section. Nor are we forgetting the fact that not only does it have to be maintained.... If we're going to just maintain what we have, enhance, and if we're going to be able to set a framework to operate what we see as a solid base for a solid industry, then infrastructure has to be looked upon as a key component, and that is generally where we're headed.