Sure. Thank you for the question.
We've been requesting for a long time, and we've always been proponents of, greater indigenous access in the fishery—for many, many years. We realized the easiest way to implement something like this, which may actually help the fishery as a whole, is to be in the same room as first nations leaders, especially the ones who would like to co-operate with DFO. We can really work this out.
The last time I appeared here, Mr. Cormier suggested just that. I don't know why DFO hasn't brought the two groups together. It was an excellent idea, and this is how it should be. DFO, despite our many requests, is unwilling to do that. It likes to work in silos. It doesn't want the left hand to know what the right hand is doing.
We have tried to circumvent DFO by contacting the Assembly of First Nations chiefs ourselves. We've met with them and we've had really great discussions, but ultimately, we can't do anything without DFO's approval. DFO is the governing body, so although we've tried—the first nations are willing to try and the licence-holders are willing to try—DFO is not willing to put us in a room together because it might just reveal too much of what it's been doing, or what it hasn't been doing.