Madam Speaker, with reference to the first question, aboriginal people played a big role in the British Columbia fishery. Prior to 1992, when the former Conservative government introduced this racially based commercial fishery which gave natives a priority right to commercially fish in British Columbia, 30% of the commercial fishermen in British Columbia were native. Some of the most prosperous fishermen in British Columbia were native Canadians.
If we went to Prince Rupert in the member's riding of Skeena, 60% of the people working in the fish canneries were natives. There was a high participation of native people in the fishery in British Columbia where the native population represents about 3% of the population.
With regard to native participation in the lobster fishery on the east coast, one circumstance that a historian described to me today was that fish were not mentioned in that treaty because they held very little value at the time the treaty was made. They were readily available to anybody who wanted them. If they wanted fish, it was not hard to catch them. As a trade item they had no value. Certainly lobsters were probably not a commodity that was sought after by natives. There is no evidence to suggest that they were.
As the member behind me said earlier, prior to 1968 anyone could have got a lobster licence. For a long period of time they were available to everybody for 25 cents. The people who participated in that fishery did so for a variety of reasons, but it was tough to make a living. Since the restricted licences came in, the fishermen, the processors and DFO have worked hard together to put a quality product into the marketplace, a product which has gradually risen in value. Now that it is a valuable fishery, obviously there is interest from others.