Mr. Speaker, last April the auditor general of Canada indicated that the DFO was managing the shellfish industry in the same manner that it managed the groundfish industry prior to the cod collapse in 1992, which, by the way, cost the taxpayers of this country billions of dollars.
Now disturbing reports out of Newfoundland show that the fragile snow crab industry is in serious decline.
First the west coast salmon, the east coast salmon and the cod, and now the snow crabs off Newfoundland.
Will the minister heed the advice of his own scientists and put measures in place to protect the resource, or will he again ignore the advice of his own scientists and allow the crab to go the way of the cod?