Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. member for his question. I did visit his riding, Gaspé, as he indicated. I pointed out at that time in discussions with fishers in that area that we have too many boats and too many fishermen out there chasing too few fish. We have not had the recovery of northern cod stocks in particular that we would like. Therefore it will be necessary to continue with rationalization of the fleet and a reduction of the number of licences. These are programs that will come forward in due course. I should point out however—
In the House of Commons on October 10th, 1997. See this statement in context.