Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Welcome, guests.
I want to focus on income levels, east coast versus west coast. I think back to a young fisher who testified in front of this committee last fall and talked about the challenges of trying to make a living in the fishing industry on the B.C. coast. I know if we look at the east coast—and Mr. Anderson is quite familiar with this—a number of factors determine income levels for the year, whether it's shortage of resource or it's pricing issues in terms of marketing and all that kind of thing, the market values.
When I look at the numbers in the fisheries labour market information provided by the Canadian Council of Professional Fish Harvesters and read some of the other documentation, there's a stark difference in income levels. This appears to be between east coast fisher people and those on the west coast. For example, they mention that, from 2000 to 2015, while the average Canadian fish employment income rose by 39%, it decreased by 6% in B.C. In 2015, average incomes from fishing employment for self-employed B.C. fish harvesters were only 56% of those of the Canadian average.
Help me understand why. Is the decrease in fishing employment income tied to loss of landed value or are there other factors that explain the lower fish harvesters' incomes in B.C. compared to the average Canadian fishing employment income?