Thank you, Mr. Chair.
A special thank you to our guests, Ms. Macdonald and Mr. Wareham, for being here in person or by video conference this morning.
My first question would be to both of you, so Ms. Macdonald, you can probably answer first and then Mr. Wareham can follow up.
I've said it in this committee before while doing this study, “Do we have the ability this time to get it right?”
For anyone familiar with the geography of Newfoundland and Labrador, my riding takes in about 90% of the land mass of the Avalon Peninsula. All but one community in that riding has a direct connection to the ocean and what takes place there. Whether it be fishing, oil and gas, you name it, they're connected to it. I've said before that I don't believe successive governments of all stripes have paid enough attention to what's going on in the ocean, what's coming out of it, what's happening to the habitat, as well as what is going into the ocean.
My fear is that we'll go through this process again now and we won't get it right. So much depends on it, whether it's the individual fisherman who has a very small quota, or whether it's like the people at Ocean Choice International who export 100 million pounds of product to 35 countries around the world. They have just as much in the game here as anybody does, regardless of size. I think everybody would like to see the fish stay for quite a long time, for generations to come, and for the habitat to be protected to enable that to happen.
Do we have the ability to get it right?
Ms. Macdonald.