I'll answer that.
Clearly it's not working because the policy that prohibits those corporations from owning those licences has not been enforced. That's why we're asking for those to be enshrined into law or regulation. These policies came out and they worked for a little while, but you'll find out that as the areas that don't have this problem yet start making more money in the fishery, these corporations will be targeting every place where there's money. It's about money and it's about control.
Owner-operator fisheries have worked exceedingly well for generations. That's been the traditional way. That's why fishermen are so in tune with their environment. It's because they're owner-operators. They've handed it down through generations, and that's what's missing.
It's about the ability of officials—not the Government of Canada, not this committee, not the minister of fisheries. It's the officials in the region who are able to bend those policies. That's what they've done in every case when these corporate interests have been able to gain control.
Fleet separation and owner-operator only protects one sector. The offshore sector has already gone privatized. Foreign companies own them today. Mink farmers own part of the herring allocation in our area. A Scottish company owns part of the herring allocation in our area. We're only talking about the inshore sector that's protected under fleet separation and owner-operator. That inshore sector is the lifeblood of hundreds and hundreds of communities along the coasts of the Maritimes and in Newfoundland, so that's why it's important that these policies become regulation.