I would like to speak to the consultation process within Maritimes region. Similar to what Jackie has explained takes place in Newfoundland region, we do have annual advisory committee meetings with the nominated representatives of the fishing industry.
In addition to that, in the winter months of 2017, Maritimes region undertook a licensing policy review whereby we sent an open invite to every core licence-holder in the Maritimes region to attend open sessions to discuss the licensing policy.
The department in particular brought three issues. They related to the eligibility to qualify for full time that would allow someone to acquire an enterprise. We spoke to our substitute operator of provisions for vacation time, and we also spoke to flexible partnerships.
We opened the floor to any comments and suggestions that people wanted to bring to the table. Over 500 people attended the sessions. More than 400 feedback forms were mailed in. I don't recall a single one that spoke to vessel replacement rules.
People wanted to speak about owner-operator, the independence of the fleet, and transition mechanisms to allow them to move their licences to their family members when they were done. Vessel replacement policies were not brought up at this very open process by the fleets or even the individual licence-holders.