I want to thank the chairman, Gerald Keddy, and Mr. Blais, who is replacing Mr. Keddy.
Gentlemen, honourable members of the Bloc Québécois, the NDP and the Liberal Party, we want to sincerely thank you for inviting us to appear before this prestigious committee to express the concerns of the Acadian Peninsula Traditional Crab Fishermen's Coalition Committeee, the CCCTPA.
I want to thank the chairman, Gerald Keddy, for welcoming us to his office on about April 18, 2007. I sensed that he had heard the heartfelt cry of alarm we shared with him, Aldo Noël, Louis Marie Haché and me, Serge Savoie.
Mr. Chairman, honourable members who also agreed to meet with us, on behalf of the CCCTPA, I want to thank you with all of my heart. Moreover, I would like to stress the work done by Ms. Burke throughout the process.
Above all, I want to highlight the presence of Conservative, New Democrat, and Liberal members of Parliament, as well as my brothers from the Bloc Québécois, as the traditional crabbers from the Gaspé peninsula and the Magdalen Islands are our blood brothers. Moreover, I will point out the presence of the NDP representative who, despite us, has represented the riding of Acadie—Bathurst for nine years. Of course you realize that that's a joke.
We are here to tell you things that have never been said nor heard by the Liberal Party for many years. Our concerns deal with three major points: area 12, under the Liberals, was divided up, torn apart—it was the traditional crabbers who built this great area 12 at the time when prices were at 10¢ a pound; non-sharing in this small area 12 until 2010, given the decline in the snow crab stocks that all scientists and biologists agree with; we also want to see a public inquiry into the way that DFO is managing our resources in Moncton.
I also want to thank the Honourable Minister Hearn for having met with me in his office, along with Senator Comeau, on April 6, 2006. He gave us an opportunity to express our concerns and share our views. Minister Hearn, and we want to congratulate him for his action, re-established the federal government's share that the previous government, under Paul Martin, had abolished. He overturned the Liberals' decision to charge fees for observers at sea.
I have attached to my document an e-mail from Louis-Philippe McGraw. The French version of the document dealing with the reversal of the previous federal government decision does not correspond to the English version. According to the French version, crabbers, this year, would pay no fees for Biorex observers. I have asked for a revised version, and I am expecting some news shortly.