Thank you, Mr. Chair, and I would gladly share my time with my colleague from Humber--St. Barbe--Baie Verte.
Just a little synopsis.... We've heard of the importance of an Atlantic-wide buy-back program for lobster fishermen. A particular program, if it were to come, would take some time to get some nuts and bolts around it. So really, when you're looking at that, you're looking at a solution for next year perhaps. It would take some time to get that particular program up and running, and it would only affect a certain number of fishermen.
From my perspective, I'm seeing two aspects here. I'm seeing the buy-back as an important issue we've heard a lot about that needs to be started, and I'd like to go a little bit into the EI for this year's fishing season and how we can help some of these fishermen get through the next couple of years.
Ed, I know you've talked about a pilot project on taking last year's earnings for this year. I wonder if you could just explain about that a little.
I know Mr. McCurdy mentioned a pilot project. Earle, was that the same type of project you were thinking of as well? Is there another option, an EI option, that could be put on the table here, from your perspective, or is what you were referring to the same as what Ed was referring to?