Thank you, Madam Chair.
Good morning to all the guests.
Mr. Lansbergen, I'm going to focus my questions your way and preface this by suggesting we to get together offline and have a deeper discussion on some of the issues.
This bill sought to change an approach taken by the previous government, which focused on the commercial, recreational, and aboriginal fish. The fish that were important to those sectors were the ones that would be most protected. There were a lot of people who thought that the habitat needed more attention, which is one of the things we've brought back in this.
I think there's an analogy here to the communities. On the west coast, we're dealing with the economics of it. We have economies of scale, but I think we may have reached a tipping point where we're actually dealing with cartels out on the west coast. The impact on communities appears to be negative and troubling.
I wanted your comment on some research done on the change in landed value from 2000 to 2015. This research was done by the Canadian Council of Professional Fish Harvesters. In Atlantic Canada, the landed value of their catch went up by 59% from 2000 to 2015, and the actual landings were lower in 2015 than they were in 2000. In Alaska, the change in landed value over that period was 84%, with the amount being landed about half that percentage, but it was an increase. In British Columbia, however, the landed value has gone down by 4% over that time, and the amount being landed has also gone down.
Why, in your opinion, is the B.C. industry underperforming compared with its neighbour and its counterpart in eastern Canada?