I'd like to be specific. You asked why there is not passion or strong feelings in some other provinces. As I said in the beginning, the centrepiece of all this is the groundfisheries. If you looked at the Nova Scotian records of export value before and after the collapse of the fisheries on the Grand Banks, for example, or the groundfisheries, you would see very little difference, largely because it's a different fishery. The concentration of fisheries in Nova Scotia, for example, is in the very valuable crustaceans, shell fisheries, and that's quite different. In our case, we have lost, as I said earlier, 80,000 people; 15% of our people have gone as a result of this collapse, so that brings a lot of passion.
The other thing is this. While you don't have the passion, let's say, out of New Brunswick or P.E.I., and I don't know about the Gaspé now, but at one time when we were there it was very strong, the fact is that the.... It's a matter of the loss of this huge fishery and the displacement of all those people, but more than all of that, there's a 19-year moratorium. Just remember. I ask you just to understand the importance of that. It's been 19 years and nothing has happened, and it's largely because there is no plan, there has never been a plan, in Ottawa to rebuild the fisheries. I can assure you our group and others have spent time, I can't tell you how much, trying to persuade the Government of Canada to rededicate itself and recommit itself to rebuilding the resource. Instead, what do we find? I can tell you that 19 years ago, when the moratorium was declared, custodial management was very important to us. About that time, Canada assumed or was given jurisdiction over the continental shelf, the sedentary species. There were arguments at the time about whether or not the flounder was a bottom species that could be included with the clams and the other shellfish.
Nineteen years is a big disconnect. Yet there is the potential on the fishing grounds of the Grand Banks and the Scotian Shelf and the Gulf of St. Lawrence and other places, in Labrador. Unless there is a major plan to rebuild, increasing efforts will be made in isolated areas, which will take away from the opportunity of rebuilding.