I want to follow up on the Larocque decision. I wanted to raise this with the minister directly as well, but time constraints prevented it.
Why is the Department of Fisheries and Oceans ignoring a direct request by this committee for information pertaining to quotas that have been assigned pursuant to the implementation of science and scientific management?
We've asked, as a committee, for detailed information on quotas that have been provided to various fishing organizations or fisheries stakeholders groups, amounting to the name of the organization, the type of fish that was provided, the amount of fish that was provided, and the intended outcomes from that fish that was provided to have those groups engage in scientific activities and report that back to the public through DFO.
The department, however—after several months of requests from this committee—has refused to be fulsome in its report to us. It's only provided information on 60 organizations that have received quotas. It will not provide the type of fish nor the volume of fish that was provided. It simply stated that organization X got what the department estimates to be a dollar value of fish provided.
What is the department hiding? This is a very serious question. This committee has asked for some information. It is clear to us you're ragging the puck on this issue, and quite frankly, you're raising suspicion among the committee members that the department is actually hiding something.