Mr. Speaker, on behalf of the people of Gaspé—Îles-de-la-Madeleine—Pabok, I am pleased to present a petition to this House from the Pabok regional county municipality. This petition contains 1,276 signatures and concerns the Atlantic Groundfish Strategy, more commonly known as TAGS.
The petitioners are drawing attention to the fact that our region has been heavily affected by the groundfish moratorium imposed by Fisheries and Oceans Canada back in May 1994. Since then, the Atlantic Groundfish Strategy, or TAGS, has been the only means of survival for a large part of our population. This program was slated to continue until the end of the moratorium in 1999, but has been re-examined and is now slated to terminate in August 1998.
The people are calling for this program to be continued until the end of the initial moratorium and feel they should not be the victims of poor management.