Bill had to excuse himself; he had a dredging project he had to announce.
My colleague Peter had asked a question about Canso. I thought Mr. Murray put forward the case for Canso. I want this to be on the record that Canso was a community that was built on the groundfish industry, and when the groundfish dried up it had a tremendous impact on that community. The union at the fish plant continues to hold 200-and-some-odd names, 225 names at the plant. For the last however long I can remember, the most they've had working there is about 70 people.
But Bill Barry is not looking at processing any fish there this year because he'll play that “we need more quota” game, and we're all aware of that. As far as being a healthy, vibrant, viable, and successful inshore fishery, Canso continues to have that. They're working now with small craft harbours people in doing a significant project at the Canso wharf. That's a very active fishery and a very successful fishery, and will continue to be so.
Colleagues around the table, don't get the impression that there is no fishery in Canso. What is happening is that Bill Barry owns the plant there and he's not processing any fish there. And for the 70 people who have worked there part-time over the last number of years, it doesn't look as if there's going to be work there, so they've been pursuing work elsewhere. Would we love to have some fish there to process? Absolutely. Still, the fishery within Canso remains a very healthy and vibrant fishery.
I'm going to pass that over to my colleague.