Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Thank you to Ed Frenette of the P.E.I. FA, to Ruth Inniss from the Maritime Fishermen's Union, and to Earle McCurdy of Newfoundland and Labrador's FAAW for appearing before us.
You've highlighted very well the crisis in the fishing industry, specifically in the lobster sector. This being a billion-dollar industry to Atlantic Canada, we share your concerns.
We have some time together this morning, so we'll be able to flesh this out better through the questions that we'll be presenting to you. But I will say that we hope you get your meeting soon with the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans. My colleague Lawrence MacAulay from Cardigan in P.E.I., and Scott Andrews from Avalon, and I think it's very important that you meet with the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans soon. We understand that it's tentatively set for tomorrow. We hope that becomes a little more solid in terms of the date.
I'll be sharing my time now with Mr. MacAulay, but I want to head back to some questions about that rationalization, that Atlantic-wide effort, as well as some very specific issues about access to credit and certain circumstances in Newfoundland and Labrador that are related to lobster fishermen and ice conditions.
Mr. Chairman, Mr. MacAulay can take the microphone.