Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Gentlemen, thanks very much for being here.
I love to hunt and fish, so in the concept of protecting resources and what have you, I have no problem with that, and I don't think anyone would. I have some real concerns with the process, though. Mr. Doherty and Mr. Arnold—and I think even Mrs. Jordan has skirted around the issue in mentioning the process without actually saying there was a problem. It appears the government has made a unilateral decision to protect x amount of.... That's all well and good if they have a plan in mind, but it's almost like a game of pin the tail on the whale, and we'll just point to an area and say we're going to protect that without any real justification, science, or what have you.
I note that Mr. Morrissey got on the record, of course, to satisfy the fishermen in his area, but the one thing he failed to mention—or Mr. Stringer failed to tell you, Mr. Morrissey—is that section 2.1.1 says the fishing allowed is not going to affect that, but it's what happened in the last year. It doesn't go beyond that. I have it right here in black and white. Mr. Stringer, you talk about another tool in the tool box to be able to deal with this thing, but you already have 13 federal statutes that you can work under.
Again, it's about the process. It doesn't seem to be science-based, and I don't think we're being up front with our stakeholders. Mr. Morrissey, I don't have any stakeholders in my riding who are affected like this, but a lot of you do over there, and we're not being up front and honest with them. How do you respond to that?