It's a good question, because of course we're now under a new regulatory regime. A fishing licence, actually, is what we have in British Columbia.
I think my colleague who grew salmon probably talked about the need for an aquaculture act. Aquaculture is mentioned once in federal legislation, and it's in the bank act. We are a bit challenged on the west coast because we're now regulated by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans and we have fishing licences. This is a bit challenging for the farm companies, to kind of wrap their heads around the idea of common property and property that we control from the egg to the plate.
The issue on the east coast, as I understand it from my discussions with colleagues there, is quite different. There's a mix of federal and provincial regulations, with the provinces taking the lead on much of the regulation of the industry, which was the scenario we had in British Columbia some time back.
I would say that the Department of Fisheries and Oceans is quite well-resourced for the west coast. I think they have 60 staff to manage our industry, which is a large number of staff, and then of course there are 13 or 14 fisheries officers specifically for aquaculture, both finfish and shellfish.
I would say that I'd like to see more money for research. Certainly, I think some directed money toward research would be wise, but I also would like to see an aquaculture act, because I think we could streamline and harmonize our regulations right across Canada and have a much better understanding of the business from a regulatory point of view.