Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for Delta for his question and his concern and that of the hon. member for Kamloops who spoke earlier on this subject.
I want to assure the House that Canada is not poised on the edge of a salmon war. We will not conduct a fishery as a free for all nor will we pursue a catch and kill policy. We will fish unilaterally and only because we are not able to make a bilateral arrangement with the United States.
We do not doubt the will or the intent of the U.S. administration to make an arrangement with us, but we doubt the ability of the U.S. administration to pull Alaska, Washington, Oregon and California together around one sound game plan. Our choices in those circumstances are to acquiesce and have Washington run our fishery, or to stand up and be counted in the interest of Canadian fishermen and that is what we will do.