I sit on the fisheries wildlife enhancement fund subcommittee for the province of Manitoba. Through that I've been privy to some information regarding our hatcheries in Manitoba. Our hatcheries in Manitoba in the Whiteshell park, specifically for trout, almost closed. There were some people in the provincial government who saw no value in that hatchery. Sport fishing groups like mine, and Brad's, we fought very hard to get this hatchery rebuilt. It's basically almost in the final stages of being rebuilt and fully operational again. We raise tiger trout, triploid rainbows, brook trout, rainbow trout, and we have splake. If this hatchery did not exist, we would not have this sport fishing ability in this province, because most of these fish are not native to this province but they are a highly sought-after sport fish.
As I said, there's a trout called tiger trout. They're only in two lakes in our area, and the only reason we have them is that the provincial hatchery has produced them. We have people from Montana and throughout the states coming here. We're having our national fly-fishing championship in lakes in the surrounding area. We have lakes that have to be aerated for these fish to survive. We have fish weighing over 10 pounds. It's a huge sport-fishing industry. The dollar spent on the hatchery has a $40 return in this province. We struggled when the province actually wanted that hatchery to close.