Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister Hutchings, and Ms. Michael and Mr. Ball for appearing before us. We appreciate that.
You're all experienced politicians, so let me just say by way of preamble that you understand that we at this table make no decisions about shrimp quotas. The minister has absolute discretion to make those decisions based on impact from her officials and the processes she goes through. Our role is to hear what witnesses say about this particular issue and decide whether we will make recommendations to the minister. We can do that.
Today my role is to understand your position, so that we're clear on that.
As a general question, would you agree that there is some inherent value in stable policies that then produce stable fisheries? We hear that from coast to coast—and I'm from British Columbia—that it's important for a fishery that's going to maintain some kind of economic viability that it understand the rules of the game so that it can make business decisions and so on.
Would you agree that it is an important principle?