I'm Roger LeBlanc. I'm a fisherman. I'm with the Maritime Fishermen's Union. I'm on the lobster managing board, and I'm port representative for LFA 34. I represent roughly 80 out of 972 fishermen.
With respect to this agency we're talking about, it's already money that we're paying in. We pay roughly $890, and we're asking to get some back. We're all volunteers. I volunteer on the management board, and I'm a volunteer port representative. For example, this year in November at the eleventh hour we had to make a decision on whether were going to go on Sundays for the lobsters we had. We had to go. I represent 80 fishermen, and before you get to the round table and get all those, it's quite a job.
If this agency were there, they would have a task and they would put letters out ahead of time. We could hire students in the summertime. I don't think a fishery as valuable as ours should make decisions at the eleventh hour. That was one of the things. The other was our trap limit. That was another thing we had to bring back. It's like Denny Morrow said, we had to get to the table. They were talking about all the lobsters we were supposed to bring in during December. As a volunteer and fisherman at the same time, it's pretty hard to get going. Really, this would be very valuable to us.
At the same time, we're looking for new markets. We can even overlook the buyers, or see if we're in good favour or going the right way for new marketing. We need something in our fishery. The way it's looking for us as fishermen, it's not really a pretty picture right now in southwest Nova Scotia. We have a lot of problems coming down the road. There are a lot of decisions to be made and a lot of meetings. We're 18 in district 34, and it's all volunteers. There's no money coming in for nothing. Today we're the only boats at the wharf, tied up, out of all those boats. I believe in the fishermen I represent.
Another thing, off the subject, I'm really in support of owner-operators. Since I've been fishing, I've seen my grandfather and my father, then my father and me, and then me and my son in my boat right now. I'm a strong believer in owner-operators. That's another big problem we have in southwest Nova Scotia.
This agency is something that would be very valuable to us. We hope in the future we'll get it.