Thank you. I appreciate that you're working on it. Again, the question was “will” it be implemented, not “may” or “if”. We need an answer, Minister.
I'll go to my next question. So far during the current integrated harvest planning process, senior DFO Pacific region staff have informed the sport fishing advisory board that they will not reopen the existing 2021-22 salmon IFMP, which would result in a fourth year of severe socio-economic hardship, starting April 1, 2022.
I use this example for comparison. If sockeye showed up in harvestable numbers far more than anticipated, would DFO prevent the harvest of those fish because doing so varied from the IFMP? The sport fishery advisory board has met the department's new information requirement. The SFAB has substantially adjusted their proposals based on this new information.
Minister, this is my second question: Will you instruct your DFO Pacific region senior staff to stop putting roadblocks in front of the public fishery advisers, open the IFMP and adopt these extremely low-risk proposals?