Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thanks for taking the time to come and give your view and help us understand the complexities of this important public policy issue. I appreciate hearing how the different groups are working together--and, Ms. Stewart, how your organization is working with one of the major fish farms to find solutions.
I have a question around the Pacific Salmon Forum's report. I notice that the first 11 out of 16 recommendations are really centred around ecosystem-based management. I'm familiar with the long and complex process of determining ecosystem-based management for the central coast land use plan. So what exactly is it? And how exactly does it impact decisions being made by industry? What are the criteria and the parameters, and who decides? How can it be applied so it is putting the ecosystem first?
Clearly, the wild salmon have to come first. These recommendations apply an ecosystem-based approach to managing the resources and the watershed, a governance system to ensure wild and farm salmon are managed according to ecosystem-based principles, and then an ecosystem-based approach to addressing impacts and potential impacts from salmon aquaculture. In your view, is this happening? And if not, what's in the way of it happening? Talk to me about what you see DFO's role is and whether it's possible to apply this similarly to how we applied it in the central coast in British Columbia with our harvest industry.