Thank you. Absolutely, we have to follow the science, the best available evidence.
With the CSAS process, our concern is about the timeliness of that information. It presumes that individuals who aren't in the room during a CSAS meeting, for example, have nothing to add to the evidence. It also assumes that they are not affected by the consequences of the CSAS science process, and it's particularly concerning when the minister takes on that information and makes a decision, for example, on a stock that affects individual fishermen who did not see that coming. The previous question on mackerel was an example of that.
We're not seeing the evidence come through, and I would certainly take the opportunity to say that much of the evidence that's coming to the minister is quite opaque—that is, the basis on which the science decisions are being made, and they're not necessarily following CSAS. I would call attention to the recent decision to roll over the capelin quota, whereas not only did we not have evidence, but there's also clear evidence of a collapse of that fishery. It hasn't thrived for 30 years, yet there's no transparency on that availability of information.
I'm not advocating that consensus model, but rather a sound process on which the evidence that the minister is making decisions on is transparent. That's why we put in our recommendations something like a report to Parliament like they do in the U.S. in their reports to Congress. Accountability, responsibility and transparency are sorely lacking in many of the decision-making processes.