Mr. Speaker, yesterday the auditor general released the most damning indictment to date of the management policies of the DFO.
The auditor general hinted that the same mismanagement that led to the collapse of the cod fishery is now leading toward the total collapse of the shellfish industry in Atlantic Canada.
On decision making within the department he had this to say:
The absence of a fisheries policy that fully reflects sustainability concepts means that decisions are made on an ad hoc and inconsistent basis rather than as part of an overall framework.
We found resource use decisions in the shellfish fisheries that are inconsistent with the concept of an economically viable industry.
The department's actions have encouraged increased harvesting capacity...even though there is uncertainty about how long the recent increases in this stock will last.
We have already seen the movie cod one. No one in Atlantic Canada wants to see the sequel, shellfish two.