Getting back to the March 2009 meeting, in the notes, on page 12 at the bottom, we were discussing exploitation rates, whether it should be 13%, 17%, or whatever. Option two was 20%, and here is Claire MacDonald, the senior advisor for snow crab at DFO:
It should be noted that the 20% ER will trigger the permanent 50%-50% Sharing Arrangement recommended by the Advisory Panel on Access and Allocation in 2005.
Then it goes on to say on the last page, as Bernie said, that Gordon MacDonald got up and spoke, and he opened the discussion on sharing formula. He noted that if the TAC exceeded 9,700 tonnes, this would trigger a permanent reallocation. They did not have any reason to not understand what the sharing formula said from 2005. They knew it perfectly, but as Nellie stated, they were guaranteed that it wasn't going to go over 9,700 tonnes. The only thing is that science one-upped everybody and did a fair analysis of the biomass out there and put out 10,800 tonnes for 2009, and it's over 13,000 tonnes for 2010.
But fast-forward to the March 2010 management board. Prior to the start of the meeting I brought it up with Paul Gentile. We had a heated conversation over it, but it was not to be spoken of at the general meeting that would be recorded because--in Paul's words--the minister had made her decision and it was the final decision and they were not there to discuss it. They basically told us that if we were going to bring it up, the meeting was going to be shut down.
On the consultation part, if they talk about consultation before their changing this, there was absolutely none with us—maybe with the members of the permanent fleet, but we weren't party to that. When we tried to find out what went on.... This is when they were throwing in that we were consulted. We were not consulted. We're still fighting today, on May 27, to find out what in the name of God went on to change all this. It is something we lived through and practically gave up our first-born to get, and here we are back to fighting, back to the old status quo of arguing and nobody really wants to talk to anybody and looking at everybody as if to say “You're ugly; we don't want to talk to you.”
This has to change. I'm hoping this panel will go back to the minister and say “Look, Ms. Minister, all the DFO documents—not documents that Nellie wrote or Josephine Kennedy wrote or Bernie MacDonald wrote—are DFO's documents, every bit of it, and that was paid for by the taxpayer of Canada and the permanent fleet knew exactly what was going on right from the get-go”.
As Bernie said, Gordon MacDonald said the only way would be to divide the TAC equally. Well, how come Mr. Gordon MacDonald's words can be carried off to the minister and change a complete plan, but anything that we're supposed to be co-managing doesn't even see the light of day? It's thrown in the garbage before we get out the door.
That has to change, and if there's anything going to happen within DFO, those people in Halifax, those policy advisors and those ones who write the briefing notes, have to be held accountable, which they are not. They are not. They hide behind the minister's skirt or the minister's suit, whoever happens to be there, and when they're on the hot seat, what do they come back with? “Well, it's the minister who has the final decision”. But the minister can only go by what they're telling her to do.