Yes. The largest barrier is access to capital. In Nova Scotia, the traditional way to get in has been through private financing from another processor, another fisherman, and they're commonly known as trust agreements. Trust agreements, in their own right.... If it's just a money arrangement, it's not that big a deal. But the problem for many who were very strong supporters of owner-operator were the controlling trust agreements, where you were really an employee rather than an independent fisherman. Those are gone now, but still, access to capital is the big problem.
In Nova Scotia, our Fisheriesand Aquaculture Loan Board started a program last June. We have independent capital that we lend to fishermen on a kind of mortgage time period of up to 20 years and we take the licence as collateral. We lend directly to new entrants and for new species. If a first-time fisherman wants to buy a licence, he could get access to that loan board capital. Or if a fisherman who bought a lobster licence, or has a lobster licence, wants to buy a crab licence--he never had one before and is a first-time entrant to a crab fishery--he could get that loan to expand his enterprise to be viable.
There's no free money. But our loan board is providing fair, independent capital, with terms that allow fishermen to survive over longer periods of time, and not pay back within seven years or whatever.