Thank you, Mr. Minister and your staff, for being here.
I just have a couple of questions that I'd like to ask. I don't have any small craft harbours in my riding and I don't have any offshore fishery, but I do have some aquaculture operations, and I do have, in the Saint John River system, a significant interest in the wild Atlantic salmon. I guess I'm trying to reconcile those two positions on aquaculture and the wild Atlantic salmon.
I know that aquaculture, as we've talked about before, represents a significant opportunity for our region. I think it's one that we need to explore. So my first question, is how are we making out on moving forward on some kind of aquaculture agreement and recognizing the importance of that industry? The second thing is, how do we reconcile that with some of the challenges we face with the wild Atlantic salmon and the study that came out this week of linkages to the high mortality rates in salmon, which have also been disputed in some cases as well?
I think my New Brunswick salmon federation would say I'd be remiss if I didn't bring this up, including that and the downstream smolt passage at the Tobique River. I'm more concerned about the reconciliation of the aquaculture, making sure we can move that file ahead in a way that still maintains a possibility of our sport fishery.