The agricultural activity regulations came into force a year ago this past August, as I understand it. There was an outcry at the time when they were being developed. I think 123 scientists from across Canada signed a letter to the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans. Our understanding of why the pesticides regulations were changed was that Environment and Climate Change Canada charged an Atlantic Canada company for illegally using pesticides. This was after there had already been a settlement around pesticide use that killed a significant amount of lobster.
One of the issues that, I think, the department should get a legal opinion on is the increasing pesticide use, which is happening because there's a growing sea lice problem in Atlantic Canada, and whether it's against the London protocol or the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, under the disposal at sea regulations.
What, in many cases in other industries, from sewage to agriculture, we're trying to limit is the number of toxins that are going into our environment. We're now authorizing more toxins to go into the marine environment. From a biological perspective, a sea lice is the same thing as a lobster. It's a crustacean. There are impacts. The DFO toxicology lab when it was working—there's no longer a DFO toxicology lab in St. Andrews—found there were lethal effects from sea lice treatments on lobsters.
I would say we have lost protections through the aquaculture activity regulations, particularly on pesticides.