Thank you, Chair.
Thank you, Minister, for being here today.
Minister, I would just like to start with the report done by Gilles Thériault, from GTA Fisheries Consultants, in November 2007, which I'm sure you're familiar with. Some of the comments you chose to make in your opening statement are a little surprising, given some of the statements that are in the report. There are a couple of things I'd like to read into the record.
In section 3.3.1. it says:
We know that the abundance of snow crab will be declining for the next few years, possibly bottoming out towards 2011. This will require significant adjustments on the part of the fleets. Once again, it may become difficult for the fleets to agree on changes to be implemented. This could once again constitute a source of conflict.
Further on, it talks about “Absolute uncertainty from one season to the next”. It reads:
Uncertainty regarding the quantities of crab that a processing plant will receive each season and each year means that workers never know what to expect from one year to the next. It is not known whether any one plant will hire 50, 100 or over 200 workers in the spring, because this decision depends on the number of fishers who agree to sell their catches to that plant that year. Hence there is perpetual uncertainty....
Then it goes on further, talking about the wide swings in variations in TAC.
I'd like to ask a question. There were several recommendations in that report with respect to rationalization processing, updating it, and that type of thing. I'd like to know what the province is undertaking with respect to the recommendations in that report.