There's one other aspect to the EI program. It would not only provide a financial base for our fishers to be able to continue on in the fishery itself, but you mentioned a very important factor, and that is how you keep communities together, how you build the fabric of the community. The EI program is part of that. It's not the total amount, but it is part of that. I'm very pleased to hear that you take it to heart and make it an issue whereby the fishermen in your communities would benefit from your efforts.
There is one other thing about EI. If the government had made a decision to allow the 2008 standards to remain in place and automatically roll them over for 2009, 2010, and 2011, this allows the fishermen another opportunity. It allows the fishermen to concentrate on surviving the crisis in the fishery itself. They would be able to work with processors to look at quality. They would be able to look at various other types of programs.
One thing I believe this gentleman from Newfoundland said, talking about pounds...I believe you had mentioned that earlier. Well, that is, by the way, a very significant point. We can keep lobsters here, for example, in the spring season in the month of May without a lot of problems. When it goes into June, the storing of lobsters becomes a huge problem; therefore we suffer many losses. My background is in marine biology, and I was a fisheries manager with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans for 33 years. Those types of problems you're talking about—the storage, handling, and quality of lobster—are paramount if you're going to put out any type of product.
I have one final thing. My friend here from the Magdalen Islands mentioned that they work on the seal hunt and the promotion of the seal hunt, etc. We have a similar situation in lobsters, in that lobsters are continually coming under the watchful eye of many of these wildlife groups, and they want them to come from a well-managed, sustainable type of fishery and they want them treated well, etc. It's another issue we will be facing in the next few years. So what we would like to do is work with both levels of government to face that issue and overcome that as being a problem. We want to turn that into an advantage in the fishery.