Yes, when it came out, because I asked what it really meant. So he explained it to me, and I said “woohoo”. I went down, and Tim Martin, from the first nations, was at the groundfish meeting, so I came up behind him and said that we got it--not gloating, but very excited. I understood it was 50-50. So he asked if I got something. I said yes, that it had just come out. So needless to say, he was well aware that the announcement came out.
I saw him many times after that at meetings, and not once did he come up and say that we got screwed. There was no outrage. That was when there should have been outrage. If it were us and we were all unhappy that it was going to go 50-50, do you think I'd wait four years and then say we didn't understand it, it wasn't right, we didn't consult right? No, I would have been on the doorstep; I would have been at Mike Eagles right there and given him hell that same afternoon.
What I can tell you—and I can't verify this, since it's third or fourth or fifth hearsay or whatever—was that the natives, the first nations, were guaranteed by DFO it will never go above 9,700, don't worry. I was told this. So that could be the reason they didn't do this big “oh no”.
I would love that guarantee sometime. I would love to sit in their office and hear them say “Nellie, you're guaranteed to get 50-50, don't worry about it. It doesn't matter whatever else happens, you're getting that.”
So no, they're not happy. I'll tell you, it's only been the last few years at our advisory meetings, as our quotas have been going this direction, that all of a sudden it comes up. We're not sure what that panel report means.
A couple of years ago, I believe Gordon was the one in crab fishing area 23 who said we wanted the minister to clarify what this 50-50 means. So at our meeting it was said to us that they wanted to know. I said we wanted to know too. If anybody was unsure, we should get a clarification.
Then this last year, when we had our meeting—