Mr. Speaker, the communal licence issued to the Burnt Church First Nation for the food, social and ceremonial fishery this fall expired at midnight last Saturday.
The expiry of the licence marks the end of a fishery that many Canadians anticipated with concern. Many aboriginals and non-aboriginals around Miramichi Bay wondered if the fall of 2001 would bring a repeat of the open conflicts of 1999 and 2000.
Could the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans report to the House on the state of affairs of the fisheries affected by the supreme court's Marshall decision?