Thank you, Ms. Street.
When I was last in Newfoundland, representatives from FFAW actually introduced me to some fishers who were experiencing much of what you were talking about. You were talking about the corporatization of fishing and about the large corporations that are taking control, one small vessel at a time.
I spoke to a father who had been quite happily fishing for many years and was training his son to take over the business. He was in the position, when I spoke to him, of it not even being a possibility that his son could take over. Despite having the willingness and despite wanting to, he just couldn't afford to do so. Instead, they were having pressure applied to them to sell their business to one of these large corporations.
You talked about the importance of protecting the owner-operator policy and this being the backbone of coastal communities, and I totally agree with you, but examples like the one you just shared are being used in discussions with me about why the owner-operator model doesn't work, in particular on the west coast.
I'm wondering if you can share some insights as to how, when there is an owner-operator policy on the east coast, we're still seeing the corporatization of the fishing industry and small fishers being pushed out of the industry. What can we do differently?