It is. I think it's a complex solution that we need to look at.
First is to stop the foreign ownership. Second is fleet separation. Third is the development of an owner-operator policy.
On the east coast they were given seven years to transition. It was between 2007 and 2014. That seven years was provided so that investors had time to divest.
We think that there are a couple of different models for the solution. One of them is perhaps the government—DFO—retrieving those licences and then reissuing them to independent owner-operators. Another is in an open market style: Those licences would be sold by the licence owners back to independent owner-operators in the same way that they are now, but with an impending deadline for those armchair fishermen to divest.
I think a provincial loan board for B.C. would be a really important part of that. B.C. and Alberta are the only provinces in Canada that don't have that. That type of loan program, provincially, helps east coast harvesters—owner-operators—to become more involved and to refit or buy licences or vessels. That type of program would help owner-operators on the west coast pick up those licences that would be let go.