Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I thank all of the witnesses for being here. Your testimony has been very interesting already.
Mr. McIsaac, I was really pleased to hear your presentation and your description of conservation versus preservation and the values in that so we continue to see the benefits of sustainable harvest and conserving areas for future use rather than setting them aside and not touching them with no real immediate gain.
You stated that it's important to engage stakeholders from the very start of the MPA process. I received a DFO announcement just yesterday about how DFO is looking at an area of interest off the B.C. coast, approximately 140,000 square kilometres. In that statement it says, “This year in advance of the MPA designation, DFO intends to implement Fisheries Act closures prohibiting the use of bottom contact fishing gear within portions of the Offshore Pacific AOI.”
Would you consider that to be involving stakeholders from the start?