Mr. Speaker, I support the bill. I can prove that allowing fishermen the right to be involved with consultations is a great thing. There is really a unique situation on the north shore of Nova Scotia in my riding where the fishermen for years lobbied the department of fisheries to increase the standards on lobster size and the department of fisheries refused for years to do it.
The fishermen banded together. They made an agreement among themselves to catch and keep lobsters only above and beyond the size the federal government allowed as a minimum. They actually threw back lobsters that were legal in the interests of conservation. This is a really good example of fishermen being involved with their own industry and in consultation.
It is hard to believe the government will not allow fishermen to be involved with these decisions when they have proven they will do a good job.
This bill is about allowing fishermen to have a say, but today in the fisheries committee we were not even allowed to have a say. The opposition members moved to have Brian Tobin, the premier of the province of Newfoundland, testify because he is an expert in this field. He is a former minister of fisheries and he is very well respected. He became Captain Canada and yet the members of the government on the committee voted to refuse to have him. That is like refusing to hear Albert Einstein when talking about the theory of relativity.
He is the expert and it is awful to muzzle this fountain of information and source of wisdom and refuse to allow him to testify at committee.
Bill C-302 is appropriate for fishermen to give them a fishers bill of rights, but we should have a bill of rights too to be allowed to hear the people we have to hear from.
This is a really good example of the department of fisheries trying to muzzle all the information, all the input, all consultation from not only fishermen but from premiers and former fisheries ministers.