Thank you, Mr. Chair.
In honour of Mme Céline Hervieux-Payette, I will make my comments in French. Like our cousins on the Magdalen Islands, I speak Acadian French.
First, I am going to reveal something big to you: I am a vegetarian. I have been for 20 years, but it has nothing to do with raising or using animals. I was brought up on a farm, but I had to make some choices 25 years ago for health reasons. I have absolutely nothing against raising or using animals. I wear leather shoes and a leather belt. My car has leather everywhere. I am not opposed in any way to humans raising animals.
As Ms. Jones indicated, Atlantic salmon is in sharp decline in our home on Miramichi Bay. One of the reasons—and it is likely not the only one—is because of the grey seal population in the bay. We have an entrepreneur who is preparing to hunt that entire grey seal population, but he is facing a lot of resistance.
I wonder how that differs from the situations we were dealing with earlier, such as the Europeans who hunted foxes for pleasure and our American friends who love trophy hunting so much. Really, how does it differ from raising cattle on a ranch?
Why is there opposition, even today, to an entrepreneur wanting to work together with the First Nations in my region to hunt the entire grey seal population?
I would like to hear your comments about the matter.