I'll start, Mr. Chair, and then ask Mr. Bevan or Dr. Watson-Wright to leap into the fray.
Basically, the department has done an awful lot of analysis on that. We have a policy framework that we will be taking to industry and will be bringing to this committee. I think next week is the plan to bring forward the policy framework.
It's complicated; it's challenging. And as part of the money in the budget we did get some additional funds to enable us to deal with at least the science elements of some of the arrangements that existed before the Larocque decision and a subsequent decision similar to Larocque in Quebec. I think the funding in the budget is in the order of $10 million in the first year and $12 million in subsequent years.
That's obviously a work in progress. It's fairly challenging, and we have tried to make fair and reasonable decisions while putting together a policy framework, since the fishery, as every member on this committee knows, is ongoing. We've tried to deal with the issue since the decision in an appropriate way. I think half or so of the session next week is dedicated to this subject and it is a subject of great importance. We welcome the committee's interest.