Mr. Speaker, it is a little late. The TAGS program was announced in 1994 and it has already almost spent its entire $1.9 billion.
The minister of fisheries is also culpable in this Atlantic Canadian tragedy. The audit revealed that one-third of the licence buyouts by his department, some of which could amount to hundreds of thousands of dollars, are unsupported by documentation. Only Quebec files were found to be in order.
This grotesque display of incompetence cost millions of dollars in over-runs and legitimate fishermen are being denied benefits as a result.
How can the minister even pretend to care about Atlantic Canadian fishermen now that we know his political tricks have backfired in his face?