First of all, for foreign companies to get access into the processing sector, there are very few limitations, and that's part of the consideration here. Do we want foreign governments controlling that much of our food security and being able to come right into the fisheries, and certainly, have that level of power and control?
The second part, and Melanie was about to [Technical difficulty—Editor] talking about the ease with which these companies have just flouted the owner-operator policy and fleet separation. We know there have been court cases around this for some time. I recall the Elson case with Quinlan Brothers Ltd. in Newfoundland and Labrador. They were able to control these inshore licences.
Right now, when we go out to our communities on the wharves and everything, it doesn't look like anything has changed. We are hopeful that the changes in the Fisheries Act and the regulations will give us the teeth where the Department of Fisheries and Oceans and the Canadian government will be able to dig into these controlling agreements that are really undermining our coastal economy.
Up to this point, the regulations came into effect April 1. We have not seen the evidence of this, but I really suggest this is where we need to put our focus. We've seen this slip way too much, so much so that we're [Technical difficulty—Editor] in the fishery. Fish processing companies are buying all these up, and the value of the fish on our doorstep can go to foreign shareholders. That's not the vision we had for the Fisheries Act.
We really need to focus on cracking down on those controlling agreements.