Yes. Thank you, Mr. Morrissey. That is absolutely the case. I have been meeting with commercial harvesters since I was first elected, but since becoming the minister, I've met with a number of the commercial harvesters, even before the rise of tensions we saw in St. Marys Bay. I will continue to meet with them, as they have an extremely important voice in all of this, to make sure their concerns are being heard.
One reason we appointed Mr. Surette as the federal special representative was that we wanted to make sure the commercial harvesters had a voice. They obviously cannot be at the negotiating table, because it's a nation-to-nation negotiation, but what they have to say is extremely important. It's important to me. It's important to the department. It's important to the government. We want to make sure we recognize their concerns.
As I said, I come from a small commercial fishing area. We're not going to do anything that's going to impact the stocks. We need to make sure the industry is sustainable for the long term. That is the number one priority I have and it will continue to be.