Mr. Speaker, I would have liked the parliamentary secretary to speak a bit longer because I have the feeling that we both could use more than five minutes to debate this issue. Anyhow, I will try to get to the point with my question, to limit myself to only one thing.
In his speech, the parliamentary secretary mentioned fisheries management agreements. I spoke before the parliamentary secretary and I said that the minister's arguments were flawed with regard to the wording of subclause 17(1).
I do not know if the parliamentary secretary agrees with the minister, but for my part, I have some experience with management agreements called partnership agreements; partnership means transparency, you must know who your partners are and let them know what is up your sleeve.
I will give you as an example the crab fishermen in zone 12 of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, who had negotiated such an agreement with Fisheries and Oceans in February. This agreement was broken because the minister used his discretionary power to allow new players in. I have nothing against the arrival of new players per se, but nothing in the act provides for their arrival.
What annoys me is that it says "in the opinion of the Minister"; letting in new players is within his discretionary power, it is not information known to fishermen. The member opposite is also a distinguished lawyer and he must know that to make a partnership work, partners must share information.
In view of what I have said and given the example I described, could the parliamentary secretary tell me whether he agrees with the opposition that there are flaws in the bill as it stands now and whether he will support the opposition to remedy them? If he cannot see them now, he still has the whole second reading and report stage to become aware of them.