Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
One of the key issues facing the fishing industry is access to capital, but as well they're struggling with this point: how can we minimize our costs without compromising conservation and get through this credit crunch?
One of the solutions that have been suggested is the concept known as the buddying-up system. There is a provision, a course of action being taken by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans and supported by many fishermen. It is an exercise called “combining”, whereby one enterprise would buy out another enterprise, and the value of those licences or the quota attached to them could be combined into one enterprise.
I'm not hearing any particularly strong dissent to that particular issue. I think people welcome it, generally speaking. One of the major points that have been raised is to the department's reaction to a parallel system called buddying-up, whereby instead of actually formally buying each other out, enterprises would simply act in partnership with each other and buddy up. They'd use one boat, expend less in capital, less in cost, take exactly the same amount of fish out of the water as they normally would, but simply at a reduced cost. That seems to make an awful lot of sense.
I understand that there's a division between the less-than-40-foot vessels and the over-40-foot vessels. The department is prepared, I understand, to allow vessels less than 40 feet in length to continue the practice of buddying up, but it would be significantly restricted. The leasing provisions would be eliminated, and only two enterprises would be allowed the buddying up. Normal practice has been that up to four enterprises would buddy up, and in fact because of the availability of this option, in several instances an enterprise of core fishermen may have actually structured the business operations so that they could continue. Four fishermen, four enterprises would structure their business operations to allow them to continue buddying up.
By suspension of this option, what the department is effectively doing is forcing now, in the middle of a financial crisis, for fishermen to go out and buy a 40-foot vessel in order to properly.... He can still use his speedboat, but now he has to buy a 40-foot vessel. Fishermen just do not see the logic in this. They see it has no impact whatsoever on conservation, but a huge impact on their bottom line.
Perhaps, Mr. Bevan, you could explain this a bit further. What exactly is the intention of the department? In regard to the vessels larger than 40 feet, why are you preventing vessels larger than 40 feet from participating in any buddying-up exercise whatsoever?