When I look at how changes could be made that would have really mitigated what the impact is right now in our province, I think that the federal government, in managing this resource, also has to say to themselves, do we want to ensure that we're going to execute the entire inshore shrimp fishery in Newfoundland and Labrador? If that's what you want to do, that's exactly the road we're going down. That has to be a fundamental decision, a principled decision of the federal Government of Canada right now.
We've already seen a number of processing plants close. We've seen a number of licence holders getting out of the industry. It's not because they want to, but they're being forced out because of this reduction in allocation.
Yet, we know that the offshore shrimp fleet still controls and harvests the bulk of all the shrimp in those particular areas adjacent to where these people live. We also know that they have the ability to go into the OB areas, area 2 and area 1, where we're seeing increases in quota, and they're not being looked at as an alternative.
It's unfair that over the last number of years that 56% of the reduction went to inshore fishers, and 27% went to special allocations, which again, affected the inshore and the communities in Newfoundland and Labrador, where only 10% went to the offshore. There has to be a better way to do this, and there has to be a decision taken by the federal government. If you want to execute the inshore shrimp fishery in Newfoundland and Labrador, you're on the right road. This LIFO policy will make sure that gets done.
If you don't want to do that, there is a time and an opportunity now to make a change. As we manage this particular industry and we manage the reduction in quotas, we can do so in a way that we're able to preserve the industry for the communities and the people who live adjacent to it as well.