I heard everything in French, and I really didn't understand it. Did you say, “If it's a moderate livelihood?”
As Shelley was saying, you can't define a moderate livelihood, because it's been our way of life for the last many thousands of years, and times have changed, and so have our responsibilities and the needs of the Mi'kmaq.
As everybody knows, I live in a community with severe poverty rates—up to 75% of our community is poor. We have high suicide rates, a lot of social problems. Basically 75% to 80% of community is on social assistance. When you see youth walking around who really don't have any future in sight or anything they might be able to look forward to, it's really disheartening.
When this came around and we all decided that the Mi'kmaq were going to go fishing, Eskasoni and Chapel Island did their management plans, and so did Sipekne’katik. It was really encouraging to see these youth being happy for once and managing to get some self-respect, because they just didn't have that before. Now that they can look to some sort of a future to make a living and provide for their families, it's truly heart-wrenching when you witness what has happened, because this has been available to them since that treaty was signed as a birthright, and those treaties are sanctified under the Constitution of Canada. What really got me is why DFO and other levels didn't approve them or didn't support them and their agencies. Being able to see that and also seeing the bad side of everything right now, people who can't afford to buy traps had them seized over the last few days, so they're asking what they should do now, because our neighbours in industry are pushing suppliers with bait and licences. And other fish products that we might need to accomplish our fishery are not being sold because industry has placed pressures on them.
The tides are turning. I saw some statements in Montreal and the Halifax area that the restaurants don't want the lobster because of the dispute. Moving forward, I think there is a way. Our lobster fishery gets an extra 25 tags per licence in Nova Scotia, so in south west Nova, they operate 375 traps, but they also get an extra 50 traps per licence-holder, which equates to up to 50,000 traps alone. The Mi'kmaq wouldn't be able to use 50,000 traps in that area, let alone in Nova Scotia. A lot of room can be played with there and could be utilized, but there has to be a little give-and-take, because at the end of the day, we do have a right; we don't have a privilege.