Thanks very much for the opportunity to speak to the committee. I will be brief, as I think Gerry covered it fairly concisely. I'll just add a couple of points regarding the genesis of the initiative, the proposal that Gerry and the SFAB have put forward and that we're optimistic will be accepted.
It's a creation not only of our trying to see how we can elevate licence prices in order to help facilitate work that is, as we understand from working with DFO collaboratively over the years, not quite desperately required but I'd say critically required to ensure that we can carry on with a sustainable recreational fishery, particularly in tidal waters. A number of programs that are operating now provide really excellent information about the recreational fishery regarding catch monitoring, the collection of data about recreational catch.
As it stands now, we aren't able, and DFO isn't able, to do everything that's required to paint a good picture of recreational fishing in B.C. We have some excellent information, some good historical information, but it could be improved upon. This could help enhance the opportunities that are available to the recreational fishery. It would also help defray any objection from other sectors that may believe we are harvesting more fish than we believe we are.
We have a very diverse and rich history of fisheries in B.C., in tidal waters particularly. We keep saying, as Gerry pointed out, that a very active freshwater community enjoys very significant benefits in terms of the B.C. economy, but we're talking about salt water here. What we're keen to do here in a lot of respects is to make clear the social and economic benefits of recreational fisheries—not to say that they are greater than commercial or first nations interests in fisheries in B.C., but just to treat them in a commensurate fashion. The funding dedicated to recreational fisheries management is very low in comparison with what's provided to commercial and first nations fisheries. The hope here is to not only have the strategy approved and to move forward and provide the funding, but also, as I said, to point out the values, both social and economic, and to allow us to do the things we can do to enhance and just provide better opportunities for recreational fishing in British Columbia.
I think I'll leave it at that.