Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you to our witnesses for their very concise but as well very compelling testimony about issues in the industry.
I want to thank Clarence Andrews for providing the committee with very specific recommendations on issues that affect your industry. You've provided us with specific ideas and recommendations as to how we can improve your industry.
We have over an hour of further discussion, so if there are other things that you want to raise, hopefully we'll be able to do that through our question and answer period.
What strikes me, Mr. Chair, in addition to some of the things we've heard, is one compelling but interwoven thread amongst just about all the testimony, and that is the price differential between Newfoundland and the Maritimes. For the purpose of the record, Mr. Sackton raised the issue of the final offer arbitration by the price-setting panel. For the purpose of the record, as we discuss this in our report, this year the price-setting panel set a price of $1.35 a pound, based on that final offer selection. The price was initially refused by the buyers, by the Association of Seafood Producers. It was accepted, albeit begrudgingly I guess, by the harvesters, the FFAW, but eventually the fishery did start at $1.35.
What we're hearing testimony about is the confusion, uncertainty, and frustration about the fact that the price differential seems to be extreme between the Newfoundland and Labrador region and the Maritimes region.
Lyndon Small said that the Independent Fish Harvesters Association has secured a Maritimes buyer at $1.90 a pound.
We've heard Phil Barnes, who is a former member of the Association of Seafood Producers, say that he is initially going to purchase at $1.35 a pound. I think Mr. Barnes will also indicate that he was actually thrown out of the Association of Seafood Producers for agreeing to buy at $1.35 a pound, which was the established rate.
What I'd like to do is ask Mr. Lyndon Small to further elaborate on his association's acquired offer of $1.90 a pound, and ask Mr. Sackton if he could elaborate further on what he perceives as the reason for the price differential between Newfoundland and the Maritimes.