Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans has closed the last remaining Atlantic salmon fishery on the Labrador coast. The closure of this fishery is the result of a serious decline in Atlantic salmon returning to our rivers to spawn.
While our own salmon fishery is shut down, just nine miles off our coast the French islands of St. Pierre et Miquelon are still carrying on a commercial salmon fishery. Yet these French islands have no salmon rivers. They are not contributing to the resource.
Why are our own fishermen forced to welfare while the French fishermen harvest Atlantic salmon? And while he is on his feet—