Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I would like to make a comment about what Mr. Seymour said earlier, and others, I think.
I completely understand the pleas you are making, or the alarm bells you are sounding, and I feel that we share them. With regard to seals, the loups-marins, as we call them in the Magdalen Islands, the way things are going, we are wondering whether we care more about the seals than we do about the fishermen. That is exactly what it looks like at the moment. With every passing day, seals of all kinds, but especially the grey seal, which is a voracious eater, keep eating any cod that are left as well as other species, such as lobster. I am not sure what happens with crab.
I would like us to talk about labour now. I think you brought it up earlier, Mr. McCurdy. I think the fisherman mentioned it. Age is creeping up on us and we are wondering where the next generation of workers in the plants and the fishing communities is. Some are interested in continuing, but others are pretty discouraged by the situation. Nothing suggests a bright future, which normally would get everyone into their boats. At the moment, you might say the opposite is happening.
I would like to hear your opinion about what the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, and possibly other federal departments, should do to get things back on an even keel, to make the future brighter, to have people ready to carry the torch and to breathe new life into the labour situation. At the moment, all we hear is that, in 10 or 15 years, even more people will be leaving the villages in Quebec and elsewhere, and so on.