I don't have particular thoughts other than to say that I would support that.
I think there's a challenge. Section 7 of the federal Fisheries Act gives absolute discretion to the federal Minister of Fisheries and Oceans. We'd like to see a change to that in respect of moving the fishery forward. In the 21st century, we don't think any one person should have absolute discretion. It's the most powerful minister in respect of their cabinet colleagues at the table, in respect of their domain of competency or interest in the fishery. The challenge has to be all the pressure that puts on the minister. In respect of managing the fishery, the minister can't give up that authority, I don't think, without a change in the act. I think this has to be addressed before there's any talk of sharing management between the two levels, the federal and the provincial.
The other aspect of this, which is very complicated, is all the provincial aspects. We share fisheries in the Gulf, for example. Then there's the NAFO angle. There are international fisheries that compete with or overlap provincial fisheries. In area 7, for example, under shrimp, NAFO quotas were set there. They were not set by Canadians but managed by Canadians. The third wrinkle—this is just to speak to how complex this is—involves our first nations and the federal authorities around first nations as a result of I think the Donald Marshall decision.
That makes it all very complex. I think everybody would laud the principle of a requirement for more shared stewardship between the two levels of government, but it's very complex.