Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Welcome, witnesses.
Mr. Balfour, I don't want to have you repeat, but regarding the “tradeable shares and quotas”, I would like you to inform the committee as to what types of discussions have taken place in the department in this area. Was there any discussion with different groups or processing companies or this type of thing?
Looking at the Atlantic region and the lobster fishery, was there any discussion whatsoever in the department concerning...? I'm certainly not against rationalization, and I have certainly supported some buy-back programs over the years. There are a number of ways to reach an end, and I'm concerned that there could be an awful lot fewer fishermen if that were the case. I'll just leave it to you to explain to the committee.