Thank you for your question.
I think it needs to be understood that the labour market is not a simple thing. There are all kinds of jobs and industries. Workers are not seasonal workers; industries are seasonal. In the case of the fishery, because of the opening and closing of fisheries, this is not something determined by the people who are working on the boats. We also need to understand that we are a maritime nation. There are times of the year when you cannot work in some of these places. You can't fish in the North Atlantic in January, unless you're 200 miles off in a 200-foot boat. But if you're in a 25-foot boat and you're supporting your community, there are certain times of the year when you cannot fish. That's the reality.
The question for someone like you involved in an employability panel is whether that employment is important. I think it is. It's important to the people who live in small communities. Coastal Newfoundland and Labrador, as well as any coastal area in Canada, is a very important part of who we are. We cannot become a nation of cities. People live where they live and should be able to choose to live where they live.
You mentioned earlier about the role the federal government has to play in that. Of course, it has a role to play in that. What kind of problem would we have if everybody lived in Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver? This does not make sense for our nation. We have to think about where people are and the contribution they make to our society, whether it's in a community of 400 people on the south coast of Newfoundland or in a neighbourhood in the middle of our largest city.