Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Mr. Bevan, Ms. Lapointe, Mr. Beaupré, the first thing that comes to mind is that every time I have heard talk about NAFO since I started to become interested in it—not as a small child, but when I was younger, a few years back—I had the impression of looking at a failure, that is that there was overfishing and illegal fishing. Take cod alone as an example. NAFO existed, was up and running to a certain extent, but the fact remains that cod off the Grand Banks was pillaged. There was illegal fishing. In the end, I asked myself what the use of NAFO was.
Afterwards, I heard that Canada was a major funder of NAFO. First of all, there was a recognition of failure on an issue that is of primordial importance. Second, it seems as though only Canadians are major participants in NAFO, or practically so. Therefore, I wondered whether it was worth carrying on with it and that is a question that I am still asking myself.
Given what I am still hearing today, the question remains the same. I would like to hear you on the effectiveness of the organization and on its funding.