Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I will make sure that my phone is on vibrate so it doesn't interrupt.
I don't believe it was mine. It may have been Mr. Small's. If you could put your phone on vibrate, Mr. Small, that would be great. Thank you.
Thank you for bringing that to my attention, Madame Desbiens.
As I was saying, my colleagues from Atlantic Canada would share the same concerns I have about the recommendations that were made. I won't put anybody on the spot from the Liberal side, but in casual conversations, it has been indicated that even Liberal members have not been satisfied—in fact, they have been somewhat dissatisfied—by the government responses, and not just the written responses we're receiving but the actual lack of action that has been taken by their Minister of Fisheries on reports they felt were incredibly important to the people in their ridings.
Mr. Chair, I want to carry on with recommendations in this west coast fisheries report. As I said, I'm a west coast boy, or close to the west coast. Our fisheries out there are incredibly important to me.
I'll go on to recommendation 3. It states:
That, given the flaws in Fisheries and Oceans Canada’s Beneficial Ownership Survey, Fisheries and Oceans Canada provide a detailed update and projected timeline for establishing the Canadian ownership criteria for holders of licences and quota. The timeline for the full transition to Canadian ownership should be seven years or less, as recommended in the 2021 Gardner Pinfold Consultations Inc. report entitled Comparative analysis of commercial fisheries policies and regulations on Canada's Atlantic and Pacific coasts.
Again, the government's response is relatively dismissive:
The Government acknowledges the recommendation and action is ongoing.
The Government recognizes the value of the Committee's recommendation to limit license eligibility to Canadian citizens and remains committed to continuing research efforts into license and quota leasing practices and the discussion of foreign ownership during the West Coast Fisheries Modernization engagement discussions.
There's no substance to this. What action is actually coming out of remaining “committed to continuing research”?
On “the discussion of foreign ownership during the West Coast Fisheries Modernization engagement discussions”, we've seen how these engagement discussions take months to take place. We hear from the fish harvesters, individuals who are having to pay, believe it or not, as I heard this year, for licenses to catch prawn on the west coast, which were going for $110,000.