That is a broad question with three important parts to it.
With respect to jurisdiction, fisheries administration was transferred to the Province of Quebec early in the century. It was only in the 1940s that the transfer of fisheries administration from the Magdalen Islands to the Province of Quebec was finalized. Jurisdiction for Quebec as a whole was removed in 1983. As I pointed out, this was due to the fact that the Province of Quebec had no snow crab, unlike all the neighbouring provinces. In terms of proximity, which is the principle the federal government applies to resource sharing, the crab banks are closer to the Magdalen Islands—at least the largest ones that contain the best crab. The Bradelle bank, located very close to the Islands, had no crab. The province therefore decided to issue six crab fishing licences, upon which there was a general outcry, leading ultimately to the unilateral withdrawal of jurisdiction by the federal government, without the support of the Magdalen Islands, even though the member of Parliament at the time tried to secure the support of Islanders. So, that addresses your question regarding the federal role.
As I said, in the lobster fishing industry, we were lucky to have been managed for a long time by the province. Most of the measures were already in place when the federal government took control of the fisheries. I will not talk about the other fisheries; as I said earlier, it is a disaster. You could conduct a study of all the other fisheries, but today we are here to talk specifically about lobster. We were lucky to have a fishers' organization that was already well developed and well organized, and that had been solidly in place for many years. We intervened to support the federal government, at the local Fisheries and Oceans departmental office, which ultimately continued in the same vein. It was from that time on that we were able to develop our own models that are specific to the Magdalen Islands. That addresses your question about jurisdiction.
As regards LFA 22, as I mentioned, it had the good fortune not to be split up into smaller areas, as others were, because of turf wars and the like, or for all kinds of economic reasons that have absolutely nothing to do with the biology of lobster. We, however, always refused to do that and were able to work together to develop common measures. When everything is cut up in small pieces, one person may agree to do something, but someone else in the neighbouring area does not agree. And yet, it is the same lobster. There are consequences for everyone. It is very difficult to operate under such a system. Here, however, we are lucky to have a single, undivided area.
I am not here to throw stones at the federal government—far from it. We have learned to work with it in the lobster industry, particularly at the local level. On the other hand, you are opening the door. Of course, most of our efforts are productive, because we have a good area. We are producing more larvae because of the increase in the legal minimum size, which is something that was not done in the other regions, especially the adjacent regions. We are pretty certain that our larvae are drifting to the north shore of Prince Edward Island. That is why we were very unhappy to see part of LFA 22 split off not long ago, without our receiving any kind of compensation. We know that lobster is a sedentary species, and that is very fortunate. Had it been a migratory species, I am not so sure that we would be as proud of our stocks as we certainly can be today.
Because it is a sedentary species, we were somewhat isolated; we were able to work on our own and achieve our own results. On the other hand, when, fairly recently and unilaterally, part of our fishing area was split off, we found that rather difficult to swallow, particularly since this kind of effort is not being made in some other areas.
In terms of licence buyback, known as rationalization, you have certainly heard of the Atlantic Alliance for Fisheries Renewal. As an organization of fishers from the Magdalen Islands, we are members of the Alliance des pêcheurs professionnels du Québec. Along with the Newfoundland Fishermen, Food and Allied Workers Union and the Maritime fishers, the union is a member of this alliance, which is calling for the implementation of a federal action plan. This organization's request relates primarily to rationalization—in other words, licence buyback.
Today, we are saying that, if a comprehensive assistance program is implemented by the federal government, we should not be limiting it to rationalization. Restructuring must involve more than just rationalization. It must also include equalization. That is what we are interested in, here in the Magdalen Islands. We have made rationalization efforts in the past, and they did not cost the federal government a cent. We are now making efforts to conserve the resource, in terms of the fishing effort. We are in the process of rationalizing our fishing effort through all kinds of means, including by decreasing the number of traps. There again, this is not costing the federal government one cent. As far as we are concerned, restructuring should include stabilization.
Thank you.