Mr. Chair, members of the committee, good afternoon.
As I only have a little over two minutes to paint a picture of eight months of frustration, I'll get straight to the point.
March 30, 2022, is a day that will be etched in my memory for the rest of my life, and not for the right reasons. With less than 48 hours' notice, and under the pretext that urgent action was necessary to regenerate the stocks, the mackerel and spring herring fisheries were suspended in my home region of the Gaspé Peninsula. With a snap of the fingers, about twenty fellow fishers and I found ourselves without income and without any commercial activity. Such a decision hurts. Months of work and preparation, as well as several tens of thousands of dollars of investment in our boats, have become useless.
This is where the darker part of the story begins, because what really affected us was learning that no compensation package had been prepared for us. We were left to our own devices.
Let me be clear: I am not questioning the decision to suspend fishing to regenerate the stocks, let alone the expertise of the scientists. They are doing their job and I respect that. What I am questioning is the way the federal government went about announcing it to us, when the boats were already in the water.
We are a G7 country that is supposed to provide a decent social safety net and leave no one behind. Why do we have to stand here in Ottawa eight months after the suspension of the fishery to explain to you how that sudden decision brought us to our knees? Why was there nothing ready to support us during this suspension?
We are now in November and we still have no indication, no support program, nothing at all. What we are asking for, beyond financial compensation, is predictable fisheries. To leave a whole community in uncertainty for more than eight months is inhumane.
I'm counting on you, members of the committee, to take this message to your caucuses.
Thank you for listening.