Mr. Speaker, this past weekend hundreds of non-native fishers and their families converged in Yarmouth to express their anger over the federal government's handling of the fishing crisis.
Despite the minister's claim of having a solution in hand on Friday, we discovered there was no such solution, which was why he had to appoint an independent negotiator.
West Nova fishers have very little faith in the government's ability to find a solution to this crisis. Why should they?
The minister of Indian affairs said that we were overemphasizing the crisis. After all, winter was setting in, not many people would be fishing and nobody's livelihoods are at stake. For his part, the fisheries minister said that he wants a long term solution before the next fishing season in the spring.
Obviously these gentlemen do not realize that the most lucrative lobster fishery is set to begin in West Nova at the end of November. Our fisher's livelihoods are at stake and I think they have a right to be concerned.
Why will the government not take the crisis seriously and immediately implement short term solutions that would at least see all fishers respect pre-established fishing seasons in the name of conservation?