Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. member for his question as well as for giving me notice on this issue.
As the hon. member knows, the snow crab licensing is very good. What has happened is we have issued temporary licences to 2,400 inshore fishermen so they can take advantage of the fishery.
If the licences are made permanent, we have to ensure that they can fish for the long term so we do not have the situation where the Government of Canada once again spends hundreds of millions of dollars to buy back those licences. This is an area I am looking at. A study has been conducted and we are looking at it closely. However, we have to make sure that the fishery is there for the long term so they can take advantage of the fishery.