First of all, Mr. Chair, I'm certainly prepared to deal with any type of issue that comes up during my mandate.
With reference to B.C., I had an opportunity to have a meeting, at the request of the B.C. government, with their ADM and two of their other senior officials there to hear about their concerns. I'm familiar with some of the issues we deal with when it comes to the U.S. and other nations that border on our waters off British Columbia.
On December 31, 2008, five chapters in the Pacific Salmon Treaty are due to expire. I made some reference to that earlier in my comments. Things are progressing. We're very much on one page in the management of these particular areas, between the U.S. and Canada, and we're looking forward with optimism that this will be done in due course. If there's a need for me to play a role in doing that, or for dealing with people at a higher level on this issue—It's not possible to intervene in every matter, but we're hopeful that things will still move along and we will reach our goals and expectations.
British Columbia is a big contributor. In 2006 the value of seafood exports out of British Columbia was over $1 billion. It was almost $1 billion the year before. They were the number one exporter of seafood in Canada last year—ahead of Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Labrador, New Brunswick, Quebec, and Prince Edward Island, in that order.
So the west coast is a very significant part of this country. There are issues there, not only with the U.S. but with others in the northern areas. We're partners there, in the North Pacific. In terms of the salmon stocks, the commission there is the North Pacific Anadromous Fish Commission. We're also partners with the commission in the southern part of the Pacific, the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission, formed in the mid-1980s.
So in two particular RFMOs on that coast, we are direct members. We're very much tuned in with that.
When my schedule permits, I have committed to getting out to the west coast to be able to get some further input, particularly from the Government of British Columbia, on those particular issues.