If we don't, we'll all be contributing to the decline of the fisheries sector in Canada.
The general culture in this sector is the same as it was before Jacques Cartier, when the Basques came to Canada to fish as much as they could in order to fill their boats before returning with their cargo to Europe. This culture of quantity still exists today: we want to bring full boats back to the quayside to fill plants, then containers, and ship the products of our fishery all over the world. We haven't learned from the past. We're repeating the same mistakes.
Right now, issuing licences that have been given value has become the main problem for fishing companies. Here, along the coast, some licences are being sold at ridiculously high prices. It doesn't make any sense to have to pay such sums to practice a trade. What's more, I'm hearing things today that lead me to think that we're not even bothering to take a global view of the situation.
Earlier, we were talking about recovering ghost gear and saying that it would be a good idea to send shrimpers out to do this type of work. We could do that, yes, but some fleets are already doing this work as part of existing programs. So we're saying that we're going to try to solve one problem by creating another.
Let's take the time to stop and look at the big picture and take an ecosystem approach to fisheries once and for all. This will enable decision-makers to embrace the concept of integrated management. Similarly, let's listen once and for all to science and industry, and let's get politics out of the decisions that are made in the Canadian fisheries world.