Mr. Speaker, I rise today on the late show to clarify the question I had last week for the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans.
Since the Marshall decision was handed down by the supreme court, the lobster fishery in the maritime region has been thrown into absolute chaos. It has pitted families against families, workers against workers and fishermen against fishermen. It has also raised the issue of racism between non-natives and native groups. The reason is the lack of leadership by the federal government.
For years and years previous Conservative and Liberal governments and the current Liberal government have denied the aboriginal people traditional and proper access to natural resources. Every single time the aboriginal people came to the House of Commons or to the government to negotiate those outstanding treaties, the government of the day told them to pound sand and take their case to court.
After the Delgamuukw decision, after the Sparrow decision and now after the Marshall decision, the government is like a deer caught in the headlights on an oncoming semi truck. It stands there and says “Duh, what do we do now”. The unfortunate part is the people of Atlantic Canada do not have time to wait.
Back in April the Auditor General of Canada released a very damning report toward the DFO. It stated quite clearly that the shellfish industry was in serious trouble. Last April the auditor general clearly said that DFO was managing the shellfish industry exactly the same way it managed the groundfish industry prior to the 1992 collapse of the cod stocks. On top of that, there is the collapse of the salmon stocks. Now there is the collapse of the lobster, shrimp, scallops and crab stocks and every other species that is out there because of the lack of proper enforcement by the government.
My question is quite clear. We had a solution that we presented to the minister 34 days ago. It is now day 35 of the Marshall decision and there still has been no clear action from the government. The fishermen of lobster fishing area number 33 are meeting tonight because people from the Burnt Church Indian reserve are laying traps in the Halifax harbour which will lead to more conflict and more confusion. There is still no leadership from the government.
We are saying to the government loud and clear that the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans and the Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development must get their butts out of Ottawa and down to Nova Scotia. They must start talking to these people instead of sending other people to do their work for them. They must take a leadership role. They must go down and resolve this situation immediately. If they do not, I fear for the lobster stocks themselves.